Victoria completed her MPH (Epidemiology) degree in 2016 at the University of Cape Town. Her thesis was titled “Prevalence and determinants of unplanned pregnancy in HIV-positive and HIV-negative pregnant women in Cape Town, South Africa: a cross-sectional study” She described the importance of preventing unplanned pregnancies among HIV-positive women as one of the crucial tools for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in high burden, resource-limited settings such as South Africa. The study presented key differences between HIV-positive and HIV-negative women regarding pregnancy intentions and family planning practices. Younger age (<24 years old), increasing parity and contraceptive use in the year prior to conception were associated with an increased probability of an unplanned pregnancy. The manuscript was published in BMJ Open (Iyun et al. 2018).
Victoria is currently working on her PhD project at the University of Cape Town. Her PhD is focused on understanding the effect of expanded early infant diagnosis (EID) and early infant antiretroviral therapy (EIART) guidelines and practices, on patient and program-level outcomes among HIV-infected infants and young children in resource-limited settings.