Health problems may increase as young people infected with HIV at birth get older
"Adolescents infected with HIV -- either at birth or later in life -- experience poorer health outcomes compared to adults with HIV in nearly every respect," says Anne Neilan, MD, MPH, of the MGH Division of Infectious Diseases and the Medical Practice Evaluation Center, who led the study. "The good news is that among those with good HIV control, serious health problems are rare." Due to the use of effective antiretroviral therapy in recent decades, fewer than 200 infants per year are born with HIV in the U.S. There now are roughly 10,000 perinatally HIV-infected youth in the U.S., the majority of whom are over age 18. Study co-author George Seage III, DSc, of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, says, "This is the first generation of perinatally HIV-infected youth living to adulthood, and they are some of the most inspirational, resilient individuals you have ever met." Neilan explains, "One of the first reports of AIDS in children ...