Growth in early childhood in a cohort of children born to HIV-1-infected women from Durban, South Africa

This study describes growth in a cohort of black South African children bor n to HIV-1-infected women in Durban. Children born to HIV-1-seropositive wo men were followed up from birth to early childhood. At birth and at each vi sit, growth parameters were measured. Mean Z-scores were calculated for wei ght-for-length, weight-for-age and length-for-age and, if they were low, th e children were regarded as wasted, malnourished or stunted, respectively. At the end of the study, there were 48 infected and 93 uninfected children. There were no significant differences between the two groups at birth. The reafter, the infected group was found to have early and sustained low mean Z-scores for length-for-age and weight-forage but not for weight-for-length . The means reached significance at ages 3, 6 and 12 months for length and at 3, 6 and 9 months for weight. Infected children who died early had more severe stunting, wasting and malnutrition than infected children who surviv ed. Infected children born to HIV-positive women have early and sustained s tunting and are malnourished but not wasted. Children with rapidly progress ive disease have both stunting and wasting and are more severely affected. Early nutritional intervention might help prevent early progression or deat h in HIV-infected children, particularly in developing countries without ac cess to anti-retroviral therapy in state hospitals.