Effect of antiretroviral therapy on clinical and immunologic disease progression in HIV positive children: One-year follow-up study.

Objective: To study the effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on clinical, immunologic, and nutritional progression of disease in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children for 1 year.

Materials And Methods: The study included 54 children aged 1.5-15 years who registered at the ART center, Surat, from August 2007 to August 2009. During the study period, the children were followed-up at 6 monthly intervals up to 1 year after starting ART. World Health Organization (WHO) clinical staging and CD4 cell count as per national guidelines, and nutritional status were used to measure clinical and immunologic progression of disease up to 1 year.

Results: Out of 54 children, mother-to-child transmission was reported in 96.2% children; for 74% of the children, both parents were HIV positive. All the children were classified according to WHO clinical staging into 4 stages and as per CD4 cell count (%), followed up at 6 and 12 months and the benefits with ART reported. At 12 months follow-up, 15% of the study group children had died. Both mean CD4 count and a relative percentage showed significant increase (P < 0.01) in the study group 1 year after ART.

Conclusion: The present study reports benefits of ART in terms of clinical and immunologic progression of disease, nutritional status of HIV-infected children after 1 year of ART.