Growth and Development of HIV Positive Children

Abstract

The threat of HIV/AJDS is one of the major menace that mankind is facing today, with HIV/AIDS having mode a huge global impact permeate the social, cultural and economic fabric of all nations of the world. Antiretroviral treatment (ART) reduces both mortality and morbidity of HIV infection. The current study focuses on the analysis of the growth pattern of a control group of 35 HIV infected children. Semi longitudinal data on height and weight for a period of 96 weeks of 35 HIV infected children of the age group 4 to 17 years for 96 weeks was collected. A control group of 20 children were also brought under study. Among boys 2.9% has BMI between 12-14 indicating starvation and 2. 9% between 18-20 which is normal while 22.9% has BMI in the range 15-17 indicating underweight whereas among girls 8.5% has BMI between 12-14 indicating starvation and 14.3% between 18-20 which is normal while 42.9% has BMI in the range 15-17 indicating underweight. Clinical data and laboratory results show that 68.5% of them are healthy while the remaining suffers from problems like anemia, enlarged liver, bronchitis, scabies, skin fungus and TB. Z test elucidates that average BMI of the non infected children is significantly greater than that of infected children though both the groups are from the some socio-economic background. Children treated with ART shows significant improvement in their CD4 count. Analyzing the anthropometric data and clinical reports it is clear that the infection plays a crucial role in decelerating the growth the infected children. However treatment with ART gives them a better immunity than otherwise.