This course equips healthcare professionals with key insights into holistic paediatric HIV care, focusing on diagnosis, treatment, and management strategies, including Dolutegravir transition, early diagnosis, and TB management. 

About the course

  • Course Design: Self-directed

  • Duration: It will take approximately 6 hours to complete.

  • Eligibility for this course:
    • Health Care Professionals registered with the relevant professional council (SANCT HPCSA, SACSSP etc)
    • Working in Western Cape

  • Accreditation: HPCSA: 6 clinical CPD points - Level 1. WCDHW Nursing accredited for 3 CPD points in Area of Practice.

  • Certification: Participants need 75% pass mark for final quiz.

  • Published: March 2024

Course curriculum

This course covers the following content:

  • Chapter 1: HIV - what is the difference between adults and children
    • Natural history of HIV
    • Understanding CD4 in children
    • Staging of HIV
    • Importance of growth and monitoring
    • Importance of developmental assessment
    • Opportunistic infections common in infants, children and adolescents
  • Chapter 2: Diagnosis of HIV in children 
    • Importance of infant diagnosis
    • Who and when to test
    • Which combination of tests indicate infection
  • Chapter 3: Managing paediatric treatment failure
    • Goals of ART
    • Treatment failure
    • Importance of viral load monitoring
    • Approach to virological failure
    • Confirmed virological failure on a dolutegravir containing regimen
  • Chapter 4: Transitioning children to Dolutegravir with cases
    • Advantages of dolutegravir
    • Key changes in NDOH ART Guidelines
    • Dispersible dolutegravir
    • Priority 1 vs Priority 2 patients for pDTG
    • Approach to virological failure: ALD1 vs ALD2
    • Who needs resistance testing and why
    • Cases and discussion
  • Chapter 5: Paediatric disclosure
    • Why is is important to disclose
    • When the best time is to disclose
    • How to disclose
    • Who to include in this process
  • Chapter 6: Vertical Transmission Prevention (VTP)
    • Timing of vertical transmission
    • Timeline of vertical transmission prevention
    • Treatment of HIV-infected pregnant women
    • Management of HIV-exposed newborns
    • Testing schedule of exposed infants
    • Feeding options
    • Cotrimoxazole preventative therapy
    • PrEP for HIV-negative pregnant and breastfeeding women
  • Chapter 7: Tuberculosis in children
    • Risk factors
    • Differences between children and adult TB
    • Pathogenesis in children
    • Diagnosis and TB treatment (Complicated vs uncomplicated)
    • Perinatal TB
    • Prevent communicable infections in the newborn
    • TPT for children


Western Cape Government Department of Health and Wellness
People Development Centre

Acknowledgements:

  • Prof Juanita Lishman
  • Prof Helena Rabie
  • Sr Tracy Kritzinger
  • Knowledge Translation Unit