Researchers presented several studies involving children with HIV at the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria. Results showed that HIV appears to have no effect on language development in children, and that children and teens usually handle being told their HIV status well. In addition, New York State and Johns Hopkins University have released new guidelines on disclosing HIV status to children.

Language Impairments Are Not More Common In HIV-Positive Children

This study found that language impairments are no more common in HIV-positive children than in HIV-negative…

Several studies presented at the 2010 International AIDS Conference found that treatment regimens containing Viread or Norvir are linked to kidney disease in people with HIV.

People with HIV are more prone to kidney disease, both because of the HIV virus, which can infect and kill kidney cells, and from damage caused by the antiretrovirals used to treat it. Viread (tenofovir), in particular, has been associated with loss of kidney function.

Viread is commonly used in combination with other antiretroviral medications and is an ingredient in Atripla (efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir) and Truvada…

Mild brain impairment caused by HIV has become “a silent epidemic” that needs better screening tools and more research to effectively address it, said Dr. Victor Valcour, who presented on HIV and brain injury at a session on long-term complications of HIV and antiretroviral therapy at the 2010 International AIDS Conference.

“The rate of [brain] impairment in patients with HIV is much, much higher” than in the general population, said Dr. Valcour, a physician at the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California in San Francisco, where he…

People with HIV should be screened regularly for kidney disease because even slight kidney damage can lead to an increased risk of heart problems, according to a presentation at the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Mohamed Atta, an Associate Professor of Medicine in nephrology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and medical director of the Dialysis Center at DaVita Health Care in Baltimore, spoke about kidney complications and deferred versus early HIV treatment at a session on side effects of antiretroviral therapy.

Kidney disease is a…

Although the cause of increased heart problems in people with HIV remains unclear, both antiretroviral drugs and the virus itself appear to play an important role.

These are the conclusions of a presentation by Dr. Georg Behrens on heart disease in people with HIV, which was included in a session on side effects of antiretroviral therapy at the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Behrens, an assistant professor at Hanover Medical School in Germany who studies the metabolic side effects of HIV therapy, began his talk by noting…