“Ukatamanga
weka utamangisa, tikatamanga awili, tifikapatali" - When
you run alone, you run fast. When you run together, you run further - Zambian Proverb
In 2002 UNZA-UCLMS conducted the largest autopsy study of children in sub-Saharan Africa ever performed (Chintu et al.. 2002),
to resolve several clinical and epidemiological controversies in the
management of respiratory infections in HIV-positive and negative
children in Africa. Results of this study provided invaluable
information for governments and the World Health Organization on the
aetiology of respiratory deaths. Pneumocystis Jirovecci
pneumonia (PCJ), Tuberculosis (TB) and human cytomegalovirus pneumonia
(HCMV pneumonia), previously thought to be unimportant in African
children, were found to be common causes of death. These findings lead
to highly effective interventions (Chintu et al.. 2004),
yet mortality rates among HIV infected and HIV exposed children are
still high, despite widespread availability of anti-bacterial and
anti-mycobacterial therapeutics.