NEW YORK, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Thousands of "AIDS babies" are now growing up, but they face more challenges than adults with the disease, researchers say.
Children born beginning in the 1980s with HIV inherited from their mothers now number 10,000 in the United States, The New York Times reported. They were not expected to survive childhood but were saved by treatment advances. Only about 200 children a year are now born with HIV, thanks to vigilant treatment of infected pregnant women.
But life for them has been a struggle, and federal agencies have begun a broad study to follow them as they grow up.
Some are debilitated by years of symptoms that early drugs failed to treat. Some have developmental delays or other problems from having the virus at birth. And their medications often have worse side effects than those taken by other patients.
As they reach adolescence, some are rebelling by skipping medication, which can make the virus run out of control and become drug-resistant.
Dr. Ellen Cooper of Boston Medical Center said she has not lost a pediatric AIDS patient in five years but is expecting "a second wave" of them "dying because they're not adherent" to medication.
