Neonatal characteristics and outcome in a cohort of infants born to HIV-1-infected African women from Durban, South Africa.

Children become infected with HIV-1 mainly through the vertical transmission of the virus with most such transmission in developing countries occurring during labor and delivery and through breast-feeding. As such the HIV-infected newborns of HIV-1-infected mothers manifest little if any signs of HIV disease. However for many reasons it is better to detect HIV infection in babies of HIV-infected women soon after birth and to identify those at risk for rapidly progressive disease. Findings are reported from an examination of the neonatal characteristics of infants born to HIV-1-infected Black women in Durban South Africa who were observed from birth at King Edward VIII hospital between October 1990 and April 1993 to early infancy. Of the final cohort of 181 infants studied 48 were infected with HIV 93 were not infected and 40 were of indeterminate HIV serostatus. The median vertical HIV transmission rate was 34% and the mean follow-up periods for the infected and noninfected infants were 28.5 and 23.6 months respectively. No significant differences were found in growth parameters and neonatal complications between HIV-infected infants and those who were exposed to HIV but not infected.