[Psychosocial problems posed by families having an infant infected with the HIV virus or with AIDS].
Since the first cases of infantile AIDS, the "status" of the severely ill child and his or her family has changed. When faced with this "shameful" disease, transmitted by the mother to her child during pregnancy, parents feel compelled to hide their children's disease and to bear the tragic burden of emotional and social isolation. This fatal and untreatable disease, occurring as the result of an unconventional lifestyle, is responsible for progressive neurologic deterioration that makes the child unrecognizable. Sleep and feeding disorders make life unbearable. Emotional suffering and feelings of guilt result in highly specific behaviors that must be identified and understood in order to provide parents with appropriate support. Pediatricians lack the psychologic and sociologic training needed for managing some of these problems and should work with specialists in other fields, including social workers and psychologists, in order to evaluate the family's needs and take the appropriate therapeutic or preventive steps.
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Weil-Halpern
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000151:congenital* / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000523:psychology*; D012931:Social Environment; D012944:Social Support
Problèmes psycho-sociaux posés par les familles ayant un nourrisson victime de l'infection au virus HIV ou du SIDA.