Comments on: AIDS Incidence at Birth (U.S.)

Question: AIDS Incidence at Birth (U.S.)

crapples — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:19:31 -0800

How many kids were born with AIDS in the United States in whatever is the most recent year for which data are available?

I tried Googling it, but came up empty handed.

By: altolinguistic

altolinguistic — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:39:32 -0800

you might have more luck searching for HIV infection rates - no-one is born with AIDS.

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:41:26 -0800

[pdf] 2004 HIV/AIDS surveillance report says that 145 children under 13 were diagnosed with perinatally transmitted HIV infection in 2004 (table 1). In 2004, 47 children under 13 were diagnosed with perinatally transmitted AIDS (table 3).

By: raedyn

raedyn — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:42:04 -0800

CDC has information on incidence of births to HIV+ women, and related data.

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:44:40 -0800

or more accurately, 47 children who'd accquired HIV perinatally were diagnosed with AIDS.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:07:35 -0800

If you call the NIH press office, they will call you back with an answer in 20~ minutes.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:07:48 -0800

I await their response now...

By: bookish

bookish — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:08:42 -0800

As altolinguistic points out, infants aren't born with AIDS, even if their mother has AIDS. The syndrome develops only after years of HIV infection, which is not something a newborn has had a chance to experience.

They can be born infected with HIV though. It's difficult to get accurate data on how many infants are HIV infected at birth, because infants receive maternal antibodies, so all infants born of infected mothers will have antibodies to HIV, even if they are not infected with the virus. Standard HIV tests detect only antibodies, and not the virus itself, so they will not yeild accurate results for up to a year after birth. More expensive tests can be conducted, but they aren't always done. If you look at the link raedyn provided, you'll see that for each year, a large number of infants are listed as 'indeterminate'-- it's not possible to know their HIV status yet.

You'll also notice in raedyn's link that the number of infected infants is quite small and getting smaller. This is because, with the best available drug treatments and birthing procedures, perinatal HIV transmission rates can be reduced to virtually nil. Since most mothers in the US have access to prenatal care and hospital births, the transmission rate here is very low. Most cases that do occur are the result of women who are not aware that they are HIV positive before giving birth.

By: sunshinesky

sunshinesky — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 17:27:32 -0800

isn't this the in.ter.net?