HIV Care and Treatment for Children

Finding a pediatrician (children’s doctor) with whom you feel comfortable and who has experience treating children living with HIV can be very important for your child’s health. It is helpful to have a local pediatrician who is close by and can help with all of the regular childhood issues, and to consult a health care provider who is an HIV expert (especially if your local pediatricians do not have a lot of experience treating children living with HIV). Expert HIV pediatricians will often work at a children’s hospital or medical center with an HIV program. HIV drug treatment works very well for most children and starting it early will keep HIV from causing more damage to your child's body. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that all children living with HIV below five years of age receive HIV drugs, regardless of their CD4 count. The WHO also suggests that all children five years of age or older who have CD4 counts less than 500 receive HIV treatment. The WHO treatment guidelines can be found here. The DHHS has also put together a set of pediatric treatment guidelines that recommend when children should start medications and which ones they should take. Your child’s HIV specialist best doctors in delhi is the person to talk to about when to start HIV drugs, which ones to start, and what the possible drug interactions and side effects might be. There is not as much information available about the use of HIV drugs in children as in adults, and not all HIV drugs are available for children. Still, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved over thirty HIV drugs for children. Their list of approved HIV drugs for children can be found here. Finding the right dose is important. Children's doses are based on their weight, so dosing will have to be adjusted as your child grows. Once treatment is started, it is important that your child be checked regularly to make sure that the HIV drugs are working well and not causing any serious side effects. Work with your pediatrician to keep a close eye on your child’s growth, development, and lab tests (such as viral load and CD4 counts). If you see problems, you may need to talk with your child’s HIV provider about changing to different HIV drugs. It is also important to ask your child if he or she is experiencing any pain. Staying aware of how your child is feeling will help you to know if he or she has become ill or is experiencing side effects.