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HIV in Children
Children show significant differences in their HIV infection progression and their virologic and immunologic responses, compared to adults. Without drug treatment, children may have developmental delay, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, failure to thrive, recurrent bacterial infections and other conditions related to HIV.
Photograph by Lloyd Wolf for the U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office
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The antiretroviral treatments that are available for HIV infection may not be available in pediatric formulations. The medications may have different side effects in children than they do in adults.
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Courtesy of the National Institutes of Health. |
It is vital that women know their HIV status before or during pregnancy. Antiretroviral treatment significantly reduces the chance that their child will become infected with HIV. Prior to the development of antiretroviral therapies, most HIV-infected children were very sick by seven years of age. In 1994, scientists discovered that a short treatment course of the medication AZT for pregnant women dramatically reduced the number, and rate, of children who became infected perinatally. C-sections for delivery in certain cases may be warranted to reduce HIV transmission. As a result, perinatal HIV infections have substantially declined in the developed world.
Early diagnosis of HIV infection in newborns is now possible. Antiretroviral therapy for infants is now the standard of care, and should be started as soon as the child is determined by testing to be HIV-infected. Current recommendations are to treat apparently uninfected children who are born to mothers who are HIV-positive with antiretroviral medicines for six weeks, to reduce any possibility of HIV transmission. |
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Infection
