There are 900 women in the East-end of London, each year diagnosed with HIV, 500 of whom have the virulent virus. In the majority, the first they know, is when they are screened at their first visit to the maternity hospital. This is likely to plunge the women into a state of denial and or despair. That alone affects her mentality, nutrition and health care. The virus itself adds another burden by burning her immune cells.

There is a good support system for such mothers but our research of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow has found new evidence, which could lead to ways of improving maternal and foetal health.
The immune system in the mother is severely compromised by HIV-1, as is that of her fetus resulting in reduced immune competence at birth. A key essential fatty acid accounts on its own for one third of the molecules in the immune cell’s membranes that are responsible for action. In HIV-1, the levels are reduced and this reduction is related to reduced immune competence.
Restoration of this state should help both the mother and the child.

One of the Trustees has given £14,000 for the continuation of this research in the UK. Matching funding is needed to help develop it to help protect the mother and the unborn child from the emotional, viral, nutritional and drug adversities. Much more is needed to apply this knowledge to South Africa where as many as one in three pregnant women may have an HIV-1 infection, 11 million children are HIV-1 orphans.