HIV/AIDS News

Although there is evidence of the safety and efficacy of efavirenz treatment among children with HIV-1, more research is needed to determine the actual risks of treating children with efavirenz, according to a review in the Journal of Pediatric Health, Medicine and Therapeutics.

The near-elimination of pediatric AIDS in the United States and other developed countries is a remarkable public health success story, a consequence of the wide availability of testing and treatment of pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission and the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy to prevent HIV disease progression among both children and adults. In the United States, the number of new pediatric AIDS cases declined from 961 in 1992 to just 23 in 2010. Annual death rates for infants and children with HIV in many US centers are less than 1%. Children with HIV are living longer and better than ever before.

Road traffic injuries, HIV/AIDS and suicide are predominant causes of death among adolescents, according to a WHO report, which calls for more focus on adolescent health worldwide.

Sexual health disparities emerge early in life and vary by sexual orientation and behaviors. Male teens who identify themselves as bisexual exhibit the riskiest sexual behaviors of all sexual orientations, according to study findings in the American Journal of Public Health.

The US Public Health Service released yesterday the first comprehensive clinical practice guidelines for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for use in the prevention of HIV.

Further research on HIV and schistosomiasis coinfection among children in sub-Saharan Africa is needed to prevent additional infections among the children most at risk, according to study findings in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

A brief questionnaire used by caregivers may be useful in identifying emotional and behavioral problems in children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, where clinically trained mental health care workers are scarce, according to recent study results.

The availability of once-daily antiretroviral therapyregimens for HIV has increased treatment adherence among children with HIV, according to recent study findings published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Precise, timely testing for HIV can safely spare most HIV-exposed infants from needing pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia prophylaxis, but universal prophylaxis should be maintained in resource-limited settings, according to researchers.

Men who have sex with men in their teens may be an underestimated at-risk group for sexually transmitted infections, according to recent findings.