Infant Life Expectancy with HIV: Understanding Prognosis & Outlook

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the end-stage HIV infection, which weakens the body̵7;s immunity. According to the Centers for Disease Control, typically all HIV positive children in the US acquired HIV perinatally--transmitted from their mother.

Prognosis

• According to the National Institutes of Health, 80 percent of HIV-infected children do not experience serious AIDS symptoms until school age or adolescence. Twenty percent of HIV-infected children die by 4 years of age. Without treatment, most infants die within the first year of life.

Transmission

• Tranmission of HIV to children chiefly occurs from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding. Other modes of transmission, such as blood transfusions account for less than 7 percent of cases.

Symptoms

• HIV infection symptoms manifest differently in babies due to immature immunity. Common disease conditions among babies and children with AIDS include pneumonia, otitis media, chronic diarrhea, encephalopathy, cardiomyopathy, and cytomegalovirus disease (CMV). HIV-positive infants are generally symptom-free during the first few months of life.

Prevention

• According to University of California San Francisco, if prenatal HIV testing is initiated early, antiretroviral medications taken during pregnancy and delivery prevent HIV transmission to newborns in 99 percent of cases. Cesarean section births are recommended for mothers with a high viral load, or if experiencing symptoms.

Treatment

• Babies in the US born to HIV-positive mothers are automatically administered AZT for 6 weeks beginning 6 to12 hours after birth. Medications used to prevent Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) are also given. Babies testing positive receive AZT therapy and PCP prevention medications indefinitely. Treatment must begin early as possible regardless of the presence of symptoms.