ABSTRACT
Many new therapies have been developed both to prevent and treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection in children. A recent Aids Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) trial indicated the substantial success of zidovudine therapy among pregnant HIV-1 infected women in reducing the risk of perinatal transmission (Connor, Sperling, Gelber, Kiselev, & Scott, 1994), and recent results of adult trials of combination therapies including protease inhibitors (Perelson et al., 1997) promise potentially effective treatment strategies that can improve survival for HIV-1 infected children. Despite these and other potential successes, there are important reasons for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) clinical trials involving children to examine broader aspects of quality of life (QOL) concerns beyond typical primary study endpoints such as HIV-1 infection status (in prevention trials), or improved survival and reduced progression to disease (in treatment trials).
