Antiretroviral therapy of HIV infection in infants and children
Recommendations for a public health approach (2006 revision) The
most efficient and cost-effective way to tackle paediatric HIV
globally is to reduce mother-to-child transmission (MTCT).
However, every day there are nearly 1500 new infections in
children under 15 years of age, more than 90% of them occurring
in the developing world and most being associated with MTCT.
HIV-infected infants frequently present with clinical symptoms
in the first year of life, and by one year of age an estimated
one-third of infected infants will have died, and about half by
2 years of age. There is thus a critical need to provide
antiretroviral therapy (ART) for infants and children who become
infected despite the efforts being made to prevent such
infections. In countries where it has been successfully
introduced, ART has substantially changed the face of HIV
infection. HIV-infected infants and children now survive to
adolescence and adulthood. The challenges of pr