title: Maternally transmitted HIV infection in children.
abstract: We evaluated 16 children at high risk for AIDS because of mothers infected with HIV. Two children were persistently seropositive and had laboratory and clinical evidence of HIV infection but had no detectable infectious HIV in their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Seven children, all of whom had clinical and laboratory evidence of HIV infection, were seropositive and virus culture-positive. One child who died at 10 months of age of candida septicemia was HIV antibody-negative but HIV was grown from cultures of his PBMC. Six children had no serologic or virologic evidence of HIV infection; of these, four who were asymptomatic with normal laboratory studies were HIV antibody-positive up to 12 months of age but became antibody-negative by 15 months of age. These observations indicate that: (1) as many as 60% of infants of infected mothers may be infected with HIV; (2) maternal antibody can result in a false-positive or false-negative diagnosis of HIV infection in infants exposed in utero or perinatally, and (3) the use of viral cultures for HIV is valuable for the early diagnosis of maternally transmitted HIV infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco 94143.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cowan
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Culver
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Weintrub
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Wara
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Levy
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D006678:HIV / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000276:immunology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D015483:HIV Antibodies