[Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS): the child and the mother]

Recent papers again stress the central problem of transfusion-associated AIDS, since several episodes of HIV infection lasting 6 months or longer without the detection of HIV antibody have been reported, with obvious and important public health and clinical implications. As a consequence, it has been estimated that the potential infected blood units are 2 or 3 in 100,000. The proportion of transfusion-infected women is about 4%, and with the increasing worldwide incidence of HIV infection in women of childbearing age, the repercussions in the pediatric age level are dramatically evident. Then the question of the long term vigilance of all infants and children with AIDS should be done.