Pediatric AIDS.

AIDS EPIDEMIOLOGY HIV infection has been a major cause of morbidity and mortality since the first cases of AIDS among children were reported in 1982 in the United States. In 1997, HIV infection was the 11 leading cause of death among children 1 to 4 years of age. Perinatal transmission of HIV accounts for 90% of pediatirc AIDS cases and almost all new HIV infections in children. An estimated 6000 to 7000 infants were born to HIVinfected women each year from 1989 to 1995, and more than 16,000 perinatally HIV-infected children have been born since the beginning of the epidemic. Considerable advances, especially in the past 5 years, in the understanding of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and prevention of HIV infection in children have changed the epidemiology of pediatric HIV infection . The Second International Conference on Global Strategies for the Prevention of HIV Transmission from Mothers to Infants held in Montreal Canada, September 1999, focused on those who suffered mainly i.e. women and children. They comprise now almost 50% of those who are infected with HIV. They are more easily infected, have little or no control over the circumstances under which they become infected, progress to disease more rapidly, have poorer health care, benefit from treatment more slowly, and suffer some of the severest consequences of discrimination. A diagnosis of HIV infection often means ostracism, neglect, loss of family, abuse, or orphan status . In spite of the now estimated 40 million persons infected with HIV worldwide, no effective control has been done. There is universal agreement that ultimate control of HIV infection cannot occur until there is an effective preventative vaccine .