My spouse and I have adopted a child whose mother has HIV. The child was tested after birth for HIV and the test showed negative. They gave the child AZT treatments for three weeks after birth. The mother had no prenatal care. We adopted the child through CPS and didn't find out of the mother's status until the adoption was final. My child's doctor is going to retest my child to give us peace of mind. But my question is: If my child shows negative at birth then is there a chance that the child could show positive later in life? Is it necessary to keep retesting the child or is the child 100% safe? I really would appreciate it if you could help resolve these issues for me. I love my child and my biggest fear now is that if the child has it that my child could die. This is something I never dreamed of taking on.

If the infant tests negative on two occasions by HIV RNA or DNA PCR testing at least 4 weeks after the infant has stopped taking AZT then you can be very confident the infant is not HIV infected. This assumes the infant was not breast-fed by the HIV infected mother. Also, HIV uninfected infants will also test HIV antibody negative at 15 months of age or earlier.

BJ

Brooks Jackson, M.D.