ABSTRACT

Introduction As we have seen in the previous chapter, women now account for at least half of the total global number of adults living with HIV/AIDS.2 Most of these women are of childbearing age and, as more and more women have become infected with HIV, an increasing number of their newborn infants are also at risk of becoming infected from them before, during or soon after childbirth. In the industrially developed world, HIV-infected infants and small children will be destined to a life of chronic infection and an uncertain fate. The majority of HIV-infected children, however, will live in poorly resourced nations in the industrially developing world, where their fate is more certain. These children will live in poverty and will have limited, if any, access to relevant care and specific treatment. They will not have enough nutritious food to eat or clean water to drink and, as their HIV-infected mothers die, they will commonly experience a lack of shelter and safety. Almost all of these children will suffer and die within a few years; half of them dying during their first year of life and the rest before their fifth birthday.1