Pediatric, Adolescent, and Maternal AIDS Branch NICHD

This represents the third report of the Pediatric, Adolescent, and Maternal AIDS Branch
(PAMAB), part of the Center for Research for Mothers and Children (CRMC) at the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), to the National Advisory Child
Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council. Since its inception in 1988, the Branch
has supported and conducted epidemiologic, biomedical, and bio-behavioral research in the areas
of HIV infection and disease in mothers, women of reproductive age, infants, children,
adolescents, and families.
This is a critical time for women and children, in terms of HIV infection research. Scientists
have made substantial advances in understanding the pathogenesis of HIV infection, and in the
treatment and monitoring of HIV disease. These advances formed the basis for recommending
potent combination antiretroviral therapeutic regimens that maximally suppress viral replication,
and that are associated with significant reductions in HIV-related morbidity and mortality.
However, as with research in many other diseases, studies in children have lagged behind those
in adults, and gender differences often go unappreciated. Additionally, in developing countries
the burden of new infections is increasingly falling on young women, with a continuing increase
in the number of children newly infected via mother-to-child transmission, as well as the
skyrocketing number of AIDS orphans.