The HIV epidemic in the United States

In the United States, 4,500 children alive have AIDS (AIDS drug, 1997, p. A3). These are children with a full-blown AIDS infection as defined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The number of children diagnosed with AIDS does not include children who are infected with HIV, the precursor to AIDS. The number of children infected with HIV is suspected to be two to three times the number of reported AIDS cases, but the report by the Presidential Commission on the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus Epidemic says that the number of cases of HIV in children will be 10,000 to 20,000 by 1991 ("Presidential", 1988).

The truth is that no one knows how many children have been infected with HIV; children testing positive for HIV antibodies are not required to be reported to the CDC (Prater, Serna, Sileo, & Katz, 1995, p. 69). The higher numbers appear to be more probable because 3,898 children had been diagnosed with

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act AIDS perinatally (Prater, Serna, Sileo, & Katz, 1995, p. 69). Of this number, 78 percent of the cases can be traced to drug abuse by the mother or her partner and an additional 19 percent to blood transfusions or treatment for hemophilia (Byers, 1989, p. 10). Drug abuse by the parents is the leading cause of HIV infection in young children. Drug abuse by the mother during pregnancy alone can cause developmental problems in her children. Separating the two issues can be difficult when addressing the problems these children face. Environmental concerns can also contribute to the inability of HIV-infected children to attain developmental milestones on schedule and to the loss of these skills. The majority of these children are confronted by urban poverty, poor health, and inadequate care and are at an educational disadvantage from the beginning (Hutchings, 1988, p. 4). The care of these children is often complicated by the parent's drug use, homelessness, and abandonment. The lack of adequate foster-care placement can mean prolonged hospital stays (Hutchings, 1988, p. 6). Most HIV-affected families are not connected with child welfare services and may resist recruitment by social service agencies for fear their childr
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Approximate Word count = 1979
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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