Hsi-Hsien Wei, Li-Ping Tsai, Ping-Sheng Wu
Department of Pediatrics, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei, Taiwan
Open Access funded by Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation
Abstract
A 12-year-old adolescent girl with intractable pneumonia and desaturation was sent to our hospital. An immunocompromised state was highly suspected because of an oral thrush persisting for a year and pneumonia of unusual severity. Laboratory tests confirmed she had human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and full-blown AIDS. She lived with her adopted parents and reported no history of sexual abuse, drug abuse, or blood transfusion. We contacted the Center of Disease Control and discovered that her mother had HIV and had passed away a few years ago, thus confirming that she was a case of vertically transmitted HIV patient who had only developed AIDS recently. Even though her mother had HIV, our public health department failed to follow her as a potential HIV victim, probably because routine HIV examinations for pregnant women only started in 2005, 4 years after she was born.
Keywords
Adolescent; AIDS; HIV; Vertical transmission
