Growing up with HIV: children, adolescents, and young adults with perinatally acquired HIV infection

Annu Rev Med. 2010:61:169-85. doi: 10.1146/annurev.med.050108.151127.

Abstract

Tremendous success in the prevention and treatment of pediatric HIV in high-resource countries has changed the face of the epidemic. A perinatally HIV-infected child now faces a chronic disease rather than a progressive, fatal one. However, these successes pose new challenges as perinatally HIV-infected youth survive into adulthood. These include maintaining adherence to long-term, likely life-long therapy; selecting successive antiretroviral drug regimens, given the limited availability of pediatric formulations and the lack of pharmacokinetic and safety data in children; and overcoming extensive drug resistance in multi-drug-experienced children. Pediatric HIV care now focuses on morbidity related to long-term HIV infection and its treatment. Survival into adulthood of perinatally HIV-infected youth in high-resource countries encourages expansion of pediatric treatment programs in low-resource countries, where most HIV-infected children live, and provides important lessons about how the epidemic changes with increasing access to antiretroviral therapy for children.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Anti-Retroviral Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • HIV Infections / complications*
  • HIV Infections / epidemiology
  • HIV Infections / therapy*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / prevention & control*
  • Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / statistics & numerical data
  • Male
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / epidemiology
  • Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / therapy*
  • United States / epidemiology
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Anti-Retroviral Agents