EARTH

We are delighted to report that the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Gabriel Touré in Mali (in liaison with Anne-Genevieve Marcelin, France) has enrolled its first patient in the key EPIICAL study, ‘EARTH’. This marks a new chapter in the study, with the scope of the cohort widening to include participants not only from South Africa and Mozambique, but also from the west African site in Bamako.

EARTH – Cohort of Early Anti-Retroviral Treatment in HIV-perinatally infected Children – is a prospective multicentre,

With the EPIICAL project being a hive of activity over the last year, we have collected a selection of contributions, stories and articles to bring you the very first edition of the EPIICAL newsletter! The issue contains an update on the evolution and recent progress in the HIV pediatric research coordinated by the project. We get to know the clinicians that locally sustain HIV programs and services with reports of their experience in the EARTH (‘Early Anti-Retroviral Treatment in HIV-infected Children’) study.

It is with great pleasure that we announce that the first patient in the EARTH study has been recruited. This encouraging news comes to us from the PHRU site in Soweto, South Africa. Now that all sites are open for recruitment, with some patients having already been screened, we are confident we will see more participants in the near future. This is the first of 150 children to be enrolled from one of 5 sites situated in South Africa and Mozambique.