Document 0307
 DOCN  M9550307
 TI    Distribution of the latency period for perinatally acquired aids.
 DT    9505
 AU    Mawhinney S; Pagano M; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of
       Public Health,; Boston, MA 02115.
 SO    Stat Med. 1994 Oct 15-30;13(19-20):2031-42. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/95149000
 AB    In the United States, over 86 per cent of paediatric cases of acquired
       immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were infected through maternal or
       perinatal transmission and current estimates suggest that approximately
       6000 children are born to infected women each year. In industrialized
       countries, less than 25 per cent of infants maternally exposed to the
       human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are infected. The exact time of
       infection is unknown. However an endpoint, birth, exists from which the
       latency period or the time to diagnosis with clinical AIDS can be
       measured. In New York City, 7 years of reliable surveillance data were
       available for children with perinatally acquired AIDS. Using these data,
       the only estimable aspect of the latency is a conditional distribution,
       which conditions on diagnosis occurring before age 7. Because newborns
       carry maternal antibodies, a positive antibody test at birth is only an
       indication of maternal infection. Screening all newborns for HIV
       antibodies, while maintaining the anonymity of the mother and child,
       provides data on the number of children maternally exposed. The above
       conditioning can be removed by combining the surveillance and newborn
       screening data to obtain the unconditional latency distribution. We
       estimate a median diagnosis age of 4.1 years, somewhat longer than
       previously believed.
 DE    Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/EPIDEMIOLOGY/MORTALITY/
       *TRANSMISSION  Age Factors  Child  Child, Preschool  *Disease
       Progression  *Disease Transmission, Vertical  Human  HIV
       Infections/EPIDEMIOLOGY/MORTALITY/*TRANSMISSION  Infant  Infant, Newborn
       Likelihood Functions  New York City/EPIDEMIOLOGY  Population
       Surveillance/*METHODS  Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.  Time Factors
       JOURNAL ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
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