Neurodevelopmental testing of children born to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 seropositive and seronegative mothers: a prospective cohort study in Kigali, Rwanda.

OBJECTIVE: The results of developmental testing of 218 children born to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive mothers and infected or uninfected themselves were compared with those of 218 children born to HIV-seronegative mothers in an ongoing cohort study in Kigali, Rwanda.
METHODS: When the children were 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of age, a specific neurodevelopmental examination was performed blindly by study physicians assessing gross motor development, fine motor development, language acquisition, and social contacts.
RESULTS: Only one acute severe HIV-related encephalopathy was identified among the 50 infected children. The proportion of abnormal neurologic examinations in HIV-infected children varied from 15% to 40% according to age and was always higher than in HIV-uninfected children born to HIV-seropositive and seronegative mothers (< or = 5% or less of abnormal examinations at each time period). After excluding those children with clinical acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) from the analysis, the proportion of abnormal examinations in infected children was 12.5% at 6 months, 16% at 12 months, 20% at 18 months, and 9% at 24 months of age and was still more frequent than in HIV-uninfected children. The developmental delay was principally due to significantly lower gross motor scores.
CONCLUSIONS: HIV-1-infected children are more frequently developmentally delayed than uninfected children during the first 2 years of life in this African population. This developmental delay is related to the AIDS stage of pediatric HIV infection.