New Technology Now Available To Monitor AIDS Patients In Africa

December 2006 (Medialink) -- According to the latest UNAIDS/WHO report, nearly 40 million worldwide are now living with HIV/AIDS. This year alone 2.9 million people have died and another 4.3 million are newly infected. While sub-Saharan Africa has just more than 10 percent of the world’s population, it is home to more than 60 percent of all people infected - with more than 24 million people now living with HIV/AIDS.

New technologies now exist to address some of the unique challenges faced by the fragile healthcare systems of sub-Saharan Africa, challenges not faced here in the United States. For the first time, a specially designed blood collection tube - called the BD Vacutainer® CD4 Stabilization Blood Collection Tube – is now available throughout Africa. Designed for the unique circumstances of extreme heat and long distances samples endure, this new technology will help monitor and manage HIV positive patients.

CD4 cell counting tells physicians how strong an HIV positive person’s immune system is and helps them determine a course of treatment. With standard blood collection tubes, the integrity of the samples will break down within a few hours and by the time they reach the testing facility as many as 20 percent need to be discarded. Experts predict the new device will improve accuracy and reduce costs associated with CD4 testing.

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Produced for BD