[Central nervous system changes in infants with HIV infection. Epidemiology and neurology]

The increase of HIV infected population reaching worldwide 10 million of cases leads to a great number of infected women in reproductive age. Finally the perinatally acquired HIV infection has become a great problem. The number of infants with AIDS is estimated at about 160,000. The diagnosis and evaluation of significant clinical symptoms of HIV infection in infants are briefly described in this study. The nervous system being one of targets of HIV infection the neurological manifestation occurring in infants were more extensively discussed. Microencephaly or brain atrophy and psycho-motor developmental delay resulting in progressive or static encephalopathy syndromes were presented.