title: Occurrence of infections in children infected with human immunodeficiency virus.
abstract: To evaluate the occurrence of infections in asymptomatic and symptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children we performed a prospective comparative cohort study. Twenty-seven HIV-infected children were individually matched with paired immunocompetent controls and followed up for a total of 543 months (mean per child, 19.4 +/- 11 months). Collected data were evaluated considering HIV-infected children both as a whole and as P1 and P2 patients according to the Centers for Disease Control classification. Twenty-seven HIV-infected children had 185 infectious episodes vs. 27 matched controls who experienced 118 infections. P1 children had a number of infections similar to those of normal controls (99 vs. 86) whereas P2 children had a significantly higher number of infections than did controls (86 vs. 32). Pneumonia and oral candidiasis occurred significantly more frequently in symptomatic HIV-infected children than in normal controls. Severe infections occurred almost exclusively in HIV-infected symptomatic children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics (IV), University of Milan Medical School, Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Principi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marchisio
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tornaghi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Massironi
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Onorato
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Picco
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Libretti
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009894:Opportunistic Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors