Health Prospects for Children Born to HIV-Infected Women

Abstract

Abstract In making reproductive decisions, women may consider a number of different issues affecting many domains of their lives. A particularly poignant one for women with HIV infection is the potential for their children also to be HIV infected and what that might mean for their children’s well-being. This discus sion reviews what is currently known about the risks of mother-to-child transmis sion of HIV, the natural history of HIV disease in children, and the health interventions available to children infected with HIV. As of June 1994, the CDC reports 5,734 cases of AIDS in children under the age of 13 years. Of the cases reported, 19% are white, 56% African-American, 24% Hispanic, and fewer than 1% were Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American. Eighty-nine percent of children with AIDS were born to women with, or at risk of, HIV infection, though almost all new cases of HIV infection in children are the result of mother-to-child transmission given that transfusion-associated trans mission virtually has been eliminated.HIV infection is currently the seventh leading cause of death for children aged 1–4 years.