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Background: HIV infected children experience a range of hematological complications which show marked improvement within 6 months of initiating anti-retroviral therapy. The Objectives of the study was to describe the changes in hematological indices of HIV-1 infected children following 6 months of treatment with first line antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) regimen. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted between September and November 2008. During this period medical records of children attending Comprehensive Care Clinic at Kenyatta National hospital were reviewed daily. HIV infected children aged 5-144 months were enrolled if they had received antiretroviral drugs for at least 6 months with available and complete laboratory results. Results: Medical records of 337 children meeting enrollment criteria were included in the study. The median age was 63 months with equal male to female ratio. Following 6 months of HAART, prevalence of anemia (Hemoglobin (Hb) <10 g/dl) declined significantly from 35.9 to 16.6 % a nearly 50 % reduction in the risk of anemia RR = 0.56 [(95 % Cl 0.44, 0.70) p < 0.001]. There was significant increase in Hb, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and platelets above the baseline measurements (p < 0.0001) and a significant decline in total white blood cell counts >11,000 cell/mm³ but a none significant decrease in red blood cells (RBC). Pre-HAART, World Health Organization (WHO) stage 3 and 4 was associated with a ten-fold increased likelihood of anemia. Chronic malnutrition was associated with anemia but not wasting and immunologic staging of disease. Conclusion: Hematological abnormalities changed significantly within 6 months of antiretroviral therapy with significant increase in hemoglobin level, MCV, MCH and platelet and decrease in WBC and RBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endemic Burkitt's lymphoma (eBL) has been associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and holoendemic Plasmodium falciparum malaria. But recent evidence suggests that other risk factors are involved.Methods: We hypothesised that selenoprotein glutathione peroxidase (GPx), a surrogate of nutritional status, is an important biomarker for eBL risk. We measured plasma GPx, anthropometric markers of malnutrition, EBV viral loads and malaria parasitaemia in children aged 1-9 years (n=258) from two locations in Nyanza Province, Kenya, with higher-than-expected and lower-than-expected incidence of eBL. The study participants were malaria asymptomatic children from the community.Results: Children from eBL high-incidence areas had significantly lower GPx levels, high EBV viral load and more evidence of chronic malnutrition than children from eBL low-incidence areas (all P<0.001). Additionally, GPx levels were significantly lower in children with the highest EBV viral load and for those with P. falciparum infections (P=0.035 and P=0.004, respectively).Conclusions: These results suggest that selenium deficiency may be a risk factor for eBL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]