pediatrics
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection in Infants and Children
Classification of HIV Infection in Infants and Children
HIV infection causes a broad spectrum of disease, of which AIDS is the most severe. Past classification schemes established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defined the progression of clinical and immunologic decline. These clinical and immunologic categories have become much less relevant in the era of combination ART, because when ART is taken as prescribed, it almost invariably decreases symptoms and increases CD4+ T-cell counts. However, immunologic staging based on CD4+ T-cell counts remains valuable for planning opportunistic pathogen prophylaxis. The clinical categories in children<13 years are available from ClinicalInfo.HIV.gov'sAppendix C: CDC Pediatric HIV CD4 Cell Count/Percentage and HIV-Related Diseases Categorizationtable and are shown in table. In infants and children, HIV infection and disease may progress more rapidly than in adolescents and adults. 