Impact of earlier combination antiretroviral therapy on outcomes in children.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Early initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in infants below 12 weeks of age reduces morbidity and mortality. A recent report of transient HIV remission in a child beginning ART from the second day of life has focused attention on very early therapy in the first days of life. RECENT
FINDINGS: In the randomized children with HIV, early antiretroviral limited ART beginning at a median of 7.4 weeks of age lowered mortality and disease progression significantly compared with deferred ART beginning at a median of 21 weeks on study. In high-burden settings, infants initiating ART appear sicker than in children with HIV early antiretroviral and start at a later age. Many could be diagnosed on the first day of life. There are still programmatic obstacles to early diagnosis and initiation of ART in high-burden settings. There is growing but insufficient information on ART dosages in newborn infants.
SUMMARY: There is now increased focus on initiating ART as postexposure prophylaxis in newborn infants at high risk of vertical transmission in the hope of limiting morbidity and dissemination of the virus.