Health Information

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The virus destroys or impairs cells of the immune system and progressively destroys the body’s ability to fight infections and certain cancers.

In adults and adolescents, HIV is spread by sexual contact with an infected person. In the U.S., almost all HIV infections in children under age 13 are due to vertical transmission, which means the virus is transmitted to the child in the womb of its mother or through the birth canal. Also detected the virus in breast milk. Before 1985, a small group of children were infected with the virus through contaminated products derived from blood. Beginning in 1985, began studies in Routine screening of blood products. Not all children whose mothers are infected with HIV acquire the virus.

* Prior to the availability of preventive treatments, the Centers for Prevention and Disease Control (CDC) estimated that in the United States born between 1000 and 2000 HIV-infected babies per year. Currently, officials of the health field say there has been a marked reduction in the rates of vertical transmission (mother to child) or perinatal HIV.

* According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), vertical transmission (mother to child) of HIV during pregnancy, labor, childbirth or breastfeeding is responsible for almost all reported AIDS cases among U.S. children. If not treated, the possibility that a woman with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection to the fetus is a one in four.