[Epidemiological trends in new diagnoses of HIV-1 infection in children]

In the last few years, the immigrant population in Spain, as well as the number of HIV-infected patients from countries where the prevalence of HIV-1 infection is higher, have continued to increase. No data are available on the impact of immigration on new cases of HIV-1 diagnosed in children. The objective of this study was to assess the clinical characteristics and determine the epidemiological trend of new diagnoses of pediatric HIV infection in Madrid in the last 8 years.

We performed a retrospective study through review of the medical records of children in whom a new diagnosis HIV-1 infection was made in nine hospitals in the Autonomous Community of Madrid from 1997 to 2004. Two periods were compared: before December 2000 (period A) and after December 2000 (period B). Children born outside Spain or those whose parents had arrived in Spain in the previous 10 years were considered immigrants.

During the period analyzed, 97 children with HIV infection were identified and transmission was vertical in 93. Overall, 33 (34%) were immigrants (51% from Latin America, 27% from sub-Saharan Africa, 15% from the Maghreb, and 6% from Eastern Europe). The percentage of immigrant children increased from 26% (19/72) in period A to 56% (14/25) in period B (p: 0.013). The mean age at diagnosis was 3.9 +/- 0.8 years in the immigrant group and 3.7 +/- 0.5 in the group of Spanish children (p > 0.05). No differences were found in the type of transmission, CDC-clinical class, viral load or CD4 cells between Spanish and immigrant children.

The proportion of immigrant children with HIV-1 infection is increasing in Madrid. In our experience, we found no significant differences in clinical or immunological category between immigrant and Spanish children with regard to diagnosis of HIV infection.