Author(s)

Patience Kuona¹, Gwendoline Kandawasvika¹, Felicity Gumbo¹, Kusum Nathoo¹, Babill Stray-Pedersen^2,3

¹Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
²Division of Women and Children, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway.
³Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

The future of any population is children. Resource limited settings with a high prevalence of HIV infection notably also have an excessive burden of malnutrition. The advances in prevention of mother to child HIV transmission programmes have led to very effective combination antiretroviral regimens resulting in growing numbers of HIV exposed but uninfected children. The mortality of HIV exposed but uninfected children below 5 years is high in resource limited settings. It is also important to pay particular attention to their longitudinal growth and neurodevelopmental outcomes. In these settings, the contribution of feeding practices, choice of complementary foods and micronutrient deficiencies, to health outcomes of HIV exposed uninfected children are not clearly defined. This review highlights some gaps in research that need to be addressed in areas with increasing numbers of HIV exposed but uninfected children. Interventions to reduce mortality, improve growth and neurodevelopmental outcomes in HIV exposed uninfected children from resource limited areas should be prioritized.

HIV Exposed Uninfected, Under-Nutrition, Neurocognitive, Mortality, Micronutrients

Kuona, P. , Kandawasvika, G. , Gumbo, F. , Nathoo, K. and Stray-Pedersen, B. (2014) Growth and Development of the HIV Exposed Uninfected Children below 5 Years in Developing Countries: Focus on Nutritional Challenges, Mortality and Neurocognitive Function. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 5, 2000-2007. doi: 10.4236/fns.2014.520211.