Coping with a chronic illness: the experience of families of HIV- infected children

In the UK, as in other parts of Europe, the slow but steady increase in the number of children infected with HIV is beginning to pose new challenges for health care providers. The development of appropriate and effective services for children will require a sensitive understanding of the effect of HIV infection on their daily lives and of the needs to which this gives rise. As HIV infection affects not only the infected child but also those with whom he or she has close ties, understanding the impact of HIV infection on the family as a whole will also be important (Gibb et al., 1991; Barratt and Victor, 1994).