Project: Nasopharyngeal Microbiota in HIV Positive Children Presenting with Respiratory Disease

Acronym	ALRTI (Reference Number: TMA 2015 CDF - 1033)
Duration	01/06/2017 - 31/05/2020
Project Topic	Background: The progression of HIV disease and its associated morbidity and mortality among childhood populations has decreased dramatically over the past decade as a result of an unprecedented global effort at scaling up universal access to antiretroviral therapy. In spite of these successes, many children living with HIV disease continue to die as a result of paediatric pneumonias. Although bacteria agents like mycobacterium tuberculosis complex are often considered as the main agent involved, the role of other bacteria agents and viruses still remains unclear and difficult to determine in clinical practice. The main objective of this project is to describe the nasopharyngeal microbiota of HIV positive children and determine its association with respiratory disease Methods: The research will be longitudinal study. We propose to recruit 100 HIV positive children with respiratory disease alongside 100 age matched HIV negative controls without respiratory disease. All children will be followed up for 24 months for signs and symptoms of respiratory disease/pneumonia. Nasopharyngeal swabs will be taken from all subjects at enrolment and also at different time points that subjects will present with and recover from respiratory disease. All swab samples will be tested for common respiratory viruses using multiplex realtime PCR. Bacterial agents will also be identified using conventional bacteriological techniques and PCR as well as sequencing techniques that will target the range of bacterial pathogens in the nasopharynx. Clinical data on subject’s demography, clinical presentations, antibiotic or antiviral treatment, co- orbidities, tuberculosis status and other clinical indicators of well-being will be retrieved from their folders. Analysis: Analysis will be done to identify specific microbiota associated with respiratory disease in HIV positive children. Conclusion: This information will provide a baseline data that would determine the pathogens associated with respiratory disease in HIV children in Ghana.
Network	EDCTP2
Call	Training and Mobility Awards: Career Development Fellowships

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology	Coordinator	Ghana