Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Children and Adolescents, 30 years in Chile

Abstract

HIV has been the major infection of the late 20th century. This review has the objective of disseminating the experience of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Committee of the Chilean Pediatric Society since the detection of the first HIV-infected child in Chile and promoting the screening and referral of newborns/children exposed to HIV and those infected with HIV. Updated data from the national and foreign literature, presentations in Congresses/Workshops held by the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Committee, and experiences of its members are analyzed. It is presented the history of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Care Program in screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up since its inception in 1990. The data on patients detected from 1987 to 2008 by the Committee (Cohort 1) and those obtained by e-mail from patients detected from 1987 to 2014 (Cohort 2) are presented. The analysis of these cohorts led to the conclusion that with the application of the Preventive Vertical Transmission Program (PPTV) for HIV, the vertical transmission of this virus has decreased from >35% prior to 1995 to <2% at present, and that clinical, immunological and virological improvement with prolonged survival has been obtained with the use of ART. Finally, we discuss the achievements obtained by comparing the results with those of the current literature, showing that Chile is on the brink of achieving the goal of eradicating the vertical transmission of HIV.