How Does Hiv/Aids Impact A Child’S Development?

Illness and malnutrition significantly impact children with HIV, causing low weight, slow growth, weakness, and disabilities, including damage to the brain. Children weakened by illness may not play as much with other children, which can slow their development even more. The number of children losing one or both parents to HIV/AIDS has continued to rise in the past decade, with most of them being school-aged children. This study reviews global literature on the effects of HIV/AIDS, including parental HIV-related illness or death.

Several factors affect HIV treatment in children, including a child’s growth and development. For example, because children grow at different rates, dosing of an HIV vaccine can affect a child’s growth and development. HIV transmission to children can occur during gestation, delivery, or breastfeeding. HIV epidemics around the world have drastically changed children’s lives, with millions of children infected and dying of AIDS.

Both HIV-infected and affected children are at an increased risk of developing mental health problems, neurocognitive deficiencies, and overall worse nutrition than unexposed children. Children with HIV-positive parents are at a greater risk of being orphaned, abandoned, removed by social services, placed into foster or institutional care. Vertical HIV-1 transmission leads to impaired development in 6-60 infants, including cognitive impairment and motor or language delays.

Dually infected children tended to be younger, more likely to have associated failure to thrive, and six times more likely to die of tuberculosis. This paper considers the psychosocial impact of HIV/AIDS, particularly the loss of caregiver support and the resultant stress on caregiving systems, on children’s development.

Nurturing care promotes children’s development and protects them from the harmful effects of adversity by lowering stress levels and promoting emotional well-being.


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How does HIV and AIDS affect development?

HIV/AIDS significantly impacts economic growth by reducing the availability of human capital. Without proper prevention, nutrition, healthcare, and medicine, many people develop AIDS, leading to a collapse of babies and societies in countries with a significant AIDS population. The epidemic has left many orphans, who are cared for by elderly grandparents. Increased mortality in this region results in a smaller skilled population and labor force, predominantly young people with reduced knowledge and work experience, leading to reduced productivity.

Increased time off for sick family members or sick leave also lowers productivity. Increased mortality weakens mechanisms that generate human capital and investment, leading to loss of income and the death of parents. As the epidemic progresses, the age profile of those infected will increase, with the peak expected to stay within the working age population. HIV disproportionately impacts women, so sectors employing large numbers of women, such as education, may be disproportionately economically impacted.

What were the impacts of HIV AIDS?

HIV is a disease that weakens the immune system, making it easier to contract diseases like tuberculosis, infections, and some cancers. It is spread through body fluids, including blood, breast milk, semen, and vaginal fluids, and can also be transmitted from mother to baby. It can be prevented and treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART), but untreated HIV can progress to AIDS. Advanced HIV Disease (AHD) is defined as CD4 cell count less than 200 cells/mm3 or WHO stage 3 or 4 in adults and adolescents.

How does HIV affect a child's development?
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How does HIV affect a child’s development?

HIV/AIDS affects children not only physically and psychosocially but also through the burden of caring for others, stigma, discrimination, exploitation, abuse, financial hardships, and reduced attendance at school. The disease’s social and economic effects limit traditional family and community care and basic services for children in areas with high AIDS-related mortality.

Children with HIV-positive parents are at a higher risk of being orphaned, abandoned, removed by social services, placed into foster or institutional care, becoming homeless, or left to head households alone. Families and communities are struggling to cope with the number of children involved. Institutional care has proliferated, often supported by external groups. However, far too little has been done to strengthen and support HIV/AIDS-affected families and families caring for orphans, or develop family-and community-based care for children without adequate family care.

Children should be cared for by their immediate and extended families, with support services in place to avoid abandonment. Regulated kinship, foster care, and local adoption should be developed for children without close relatives. Young people and communities should be provided with information on HIV/AIDS to avoid infection. Adequate medical treatment is needed to enable infected parents to live longer and prevent HIV transmission from mother to child.

How does HIV contribute to the development of AIDS?

HIV is a disease that attacks and destroys the immune system’s CD4 cells, making it difficult to fight off infections and certain cancers. Without treatment, HIV can lead to health decline and the onset of AIDS. The virus can be transmitted through shared bodily fluids such as blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, vaginal fluids, rectal fluids, and breastmilk. It can also be transmitted during vaginal or anal sex, injecting drugs or tattooing, getting stuck with a needle with someone’s blood on it, during pregnancy, or breastfeeding. Perinatal transmission occurs when a birthing parent with HIV transmits the virus to their child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding.

How does HIV cause a person to develop AIDS?

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the etiological agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a life-threatening disease resulting from the virus’s destructive impact on the immune system. This weakening results in the development of life-threatening infections and cancers. The virus is transmitted from person to person via specific body fluids and is designated as HIV-1. The virus persists within the body indefinitely.

How does HIV AIDS affect life?

HIV weakens the immune system by destroying CD4+ T cells, making people more vulnerable to other infections and diseases. However, effective anti-HIV medications, such as antiretroviral therapy (ART), can help people lead long, healthy lives by suppressing the virus in the blood to a level undetectable by standard tests. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) encourages citing images and following copyright guidelines for reusing NIMH content, as information on their website and publications is in the public domain and may be reused or copied without permission.

How does HIV affect a baby?
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How does HIV affect a baby?

HIV infection affects pregnancy and outcomes, with varying rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as increased spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, perinatal and infant mortality, intrauterine growth retardation, low birth weight, and chorioamnionitis. HIV infection may also reduce fertility, regardless of the stage of infection. In Uganda, HIV infected women have lower pregnancy rates and more pregnancy losses than uninfected women. Antenatal care provides an opportunity to counsel pregnant women about HIV risk and offer HIV testing.

The management of a pregnant woman with HIV infection depends on resources available and individual needs. A multidisciplinary team of clinicians, psychologists, and social workers can optimize care. Prepregnancy counselling may optimize medical care and minimize adverse outcomes. In resource-poor areas, tuberculosis is a common opportunistic infection in pregnant women with HIV, so it should be excluded or excluded in these settings or those who have recently arrived in a developed country from a developing one. Laboratory investigations should include liver function tests, complete blood count, plasma HIV RNA viral load, and screening for sexually transmitted infections.

How does HIV affect intellectual development?

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) is a mild cognitive impairment experienced by many HIV-positive individuals, affecting memory and thinking. HAND can lead to concentration difficulties. To access information, users can choose between help, advice, news, real stories, research, support, and a dementia directory. Their selection will be saved for future visits and can be changed at any time.

What are the challenges of HIV in children?
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What are the challenges of HIV in children?

As the disease progresses, children with HIV/AIDS face physical and mental decline, leading to difficulty in communication with family members about prognosis and death. They also have to cope with the mortality of their loved ones with HIV/AIDS. The cognitive and emotional maturity of the child determines their awareness of their own mortality and coping skills. Children’s reactions can range from unawareness of the finality of death in very young children to increasing awareness and anxiety in elementary age. Sensitive psychological interventions can help express anxieties associated with separation from parents and dying.

Family-centered approaches are essential for addressing family stressors, adaptation, and cultural factors impacting the whole family. They provide appropriate support for the infected child and their siblings and connect families to services and community resources such as medical, mental health, social welfare services, and respite care through case management. Therapeutic intervention with families coping with HIV/AIDS must begin with the concept of empowerment.

The diagnosis of HIV causes family to separate from normal healing rituals, loss of family gathering, and friendship groups. Families may be helped reconstruct former family supports that are no longer available and develop new rituals to draw together those who need support, particularly in the terminal phase of the illness.

Children with HIV infection present with a wide range of psychiatric conditions that warrant intensive intervention. Therapeutic support plays the greatest role in the care of children with HIV infection, and supportive and cognitive therapy is essential for them and their parents and families.

What are the symptoms of HIV in a child?
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What are the symptoms of HIV in a child?

HIV is a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which destroys or impairs the immune system, leading to the development of AIDS. Symptoms include failure to thrive, delayed physical and developmental growth, swollen abdomen, swollen lymph nodes, intermittent diarrhea, pneumonia, and oral thrush. HIV is most commonly spread through sexual contact with an infected partner in adults and adolescents. In the U. S., most HIV infections in children under 13 are from vertical transmission, such as in the mother’s womb, birth canal, or breastfeeding.

Routine screening of blood products began in 1985, but not every child born to an HIV-infected mother will acquire the virus. Teens and young adults between 13 and 24, especially among minority groups, represent one of the fastest-growing HIV-positive groups in the U. S. The number of infants becoming HIV positive when born to an infected mother has decreased due to increased testing and the use of new anti-retroviral medications.

How does HIV affect the development of embryos?
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How does HIV affect the development of embryos?

Women who are HIV positive have an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including spontaneous early abortion, low birth weight, stillbirth, preterm labor, preterm rupture of membranes, sexually transmitted diseases, bacterial pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and other infectious diseases.


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How Does HIV/AIDS Impact A Child'S Development?
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Rae Fairbanks Mosher

I’m a mother, teacher, and writer who has found immense joy in the journey of motherhood. Through my blog, I share my experiences, lessons, and reflections on balancing life as a parent and a professional. My passion for teaching extends beyond the classroom as I write about the challenges and blessings of raising children. Join me as I explore the beautiful chaos of motherhood and share insights that inspire and uplift.

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2 comments

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  • Great simple informative article. HIV/AIDS is extremely prevalent in our species and I think making people aware of how HIV/AIDS is transmitted is one of the most important educational insights into this virus. #1 being sexually transmitted and through blood making those two dimensions the “easiest” ways of transmitting the virus. Thanks, Natgeo!

  • Let’s start with what is right. Isn’t it so, that change is difficult and we are under pressure whenever we think that we have to change? If our lives are all right, why should we think of changing?! Could it be that altering our lifestyle without reason be an open door to sicknesses we so much fear today? If we are doing wrong things that are causing or keeping our ills, why continue on a dead end road?! If things are well, let us concentrate on keeping them so. Let’s refrain ourselves from the desire to be going out without a good goal or purpose. Let us find the riches of life inside our homes, that we may live to go outside and seek the same in nature and people without sacrificing what we already got.

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