Morbidity and mortality in European children vertically infected by HIV-1

Many children infected with HIV at birth may survive beyond the age of 6. Researchers followed 392 children infected at birth with HIV. About 20% of the children developed severe HIV infection during the first year of life but by six years, this figure had only risen to 36%. Only 26% had died by the age of 6. Two-thirds of those alive at 6 years had minor symptoms and many had relatively high CD4 lymphocyte levels. Those children who received antibiotics to prevent opportunistic infections had a lower rate of bacterial infections than children not receiving antibiotics.