HOW SERIOUS IS HIV FOR CHILDREN?

HOW SERIOUS IS HIV FOR CHILDREN?

Where antiretroviral medications (ARVs) and good medical care for pregnant women are available, new infections of children are rare. There were about 2 million children around the world living with HIV in 2007.

Anyone age 13 or younger is counted as a child in US health statistics. In 1992, almost 1,000 children were infected in the US. By 2008, there were 182 new infections and 41 new diagnoses of AIDS. African-American newborns are much more likely to be infected than children of other races.

Most children with HIV were born to mothers with HIV. Others got a transfusion of infected blood. In the developed world, blood for transfusions is screened and most pregnant women are taking ARVs. See fact sheet 611 for more information on pregnancy and HIV.

Infected mothers can pass HIV to their newborns. This happens where mothers do not get good medical care while they are pregnant. It also happens where ARVs are not available, where new mothers feed their babies breast milk, or where blood for transfusions is not always screened.