Neurological disorders in HIV-infected children in India

Abstract

Early diagnosis of neurological disorders in HIV-infected children is important for appropriate investigation and management, especially the introduction of HAART.

Speech, language and swallowing difficulties in a child with aids

“…A gradual deterioration in speech clarity, weakness in both upper and lower limbs was observed. Similar findings have been reported by Gupta et al [6] in which they reported that the mean age of presentation of the symptoms was 4.36 years. However, causative factor for the child's condition was not known.…”

“…Most commonly, the symptoms manifest as systemic illness once the immune system is majorly affected. Although the primary infection is to the immune system, it may also affect the nervous system causing neurological disorders [6,8,10,14,30]. The child exhibited regression and slurring of speech along with restricted mobility and strength of articulators which support the presence of damage in the brain.…”

“…One of the Indian studies which investigated the neurological disorders in HIV-infected children showed that 7.2% of all the children with HIV, featured neurological complications and a majority had HIVE. They also found the mean age of presentation to be 4.36 years [6].…”

“…HIV encephalopathy (HIVE) can be categorized as progressive and static [6]. In the progressive type of HIVE, there is a loss of acquired skills or stagnation in attaining developmental milestones and in the static type; children acquire new skills more slowly than normal.…”

Toxoplasmosis in HIV/AIDS Patients - A Living Legacy

“…The rate of CT was found to vary from between 16-40% in the USA and UK, ~60% in Spain, 50-80% in Brazil, 75-90% in France (Pereira-Chioccola et al, 2009), and <20% in Asian countries including India (Sharma et al, 2004), Malaysia (Nissapatorn et al, 2003, or Thailand (Anekthananon et al, 2004;Subsai et al, 2004). CT is frequently diagnosed in adults but rarely occurs in children with AIDS; the infection accounted for 0.86% of AIDS-defining illnesses (Richards et al, 1995) or <1.0 per 100 person years (Dankner et al, 2001;Gupta et al, 2009). CT is the most common cause of focal intracerebral lesion(s) in patie n t s w i t h A I D S .…”