Dear Dr Ombeva,
I am living with HIV and will soon be a mum. My gynae has advised that I do not breastfeed to reduce chances of infecting the baby. When is the earliest I can test to know if my child is infected or not?
Jane
Dear Jane,
HIV testing can be done as early as at birth, but often this result must be confirmed by another test at around six weeks after the baby completes a dose given at birth which must be taken for six weeks. The syrup is given whether the baby is breastfeeding or not.
Because this test is expensive, often times we only do the six-week test for those who are not being breastfed. The process is called dry Blood Spot Sampling or DBS test.
This testing has helped expand HIV diagnostic services for HIV-infected or exposed infants in resource-poor settings due to the samples' longer lifespan with reduced need for refrigeration and the less invasive nature of the test compared with other methods.
Done at six weeks of age, the results are always certain as the test done on the samples looks for the HIV virus DNA, unlike the common rapid tests that look for HIV antibodies, which all test positive for infants born to HIV positive mothers before 18 months of age, regardless of whether the child is truly infected with HIV virus or not.
Dr Ombeva Malande is a paediatrics and child health expert