National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 10│Issue 4│April 2019 Page 223 ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 Open Access Article www.njcmindia.org Profile of Children Suffering from HIV/AIDS in Amritsar, Punjab- A Cross-Sectional Study Manisha Nagpal 1 , Sarthak Chawla 2 , Priyanka Devgun 3 , Harpreet Kaur 4 , Naresh Chawla 5 Financial Support: None declared Conflict of Interest: None declared Copy Right: The Journal retains the copyrights of this article. However, re- production is permissible with due ac- knowledgement of the source. How to cite this article: Nagpal M, Chawla S, Devgun P, Kaur H, Chawla N. Profile of Children Suf- fering from HIV/AIDS in Amritsar, Punjab- A Cross-Sectional Study. Natl J Community Med 2019; 10(4):223-227 Author’s Affiliation: 1 Associate Professor, Dept. of Commu- nity Medicine, SGRDIMSAR; 2 Student, KMC; 3 Prof and Head, 4 Statistician and Lecturer, Dept. of Community Medi- cine, SGRDIMSAR, 5 District TB officer, Amritsar Correspondence Manisha Nagpal manishaspm@gmail.com Date of Submission: 25-01-19 Date of Acceptance: 13-03-19 Date of Publication: 30-04-19 ABSTRACT Introduction: HIV/AIDS in paediatric age group is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. Mostly infection is acquired in vitro and mother-to-child transmission remains the most significant route of transmission in children <15 years. Lack of awareness about the disease and occurrence of opportunistic infec- tions are common hinderances in the successful management of disease. Materials and methods: The study was conducted on less than 15 years children registered and being treated with Anti-retroviral therapy (ARV) registered with Government ART centre from 1 st Jan 2016 to 31 st December 2017. Socio-demographic profile, birth history, mode of transmission, side effects of anti-retroviral ther- apy and opportunistic infections were assessed. Data management and analysis was done by using SPSS. Results: Of the total 46 children, 25 (54.3%) were males and 21 (45.7%) were females. Commonest mode of transmission was mother to child (91.3%). Common side-effects observed were skin rashes, nausea/vomiting, diarrhoea, fever/headache, jaundice and anaemia. Opportunistic infections observed were tuberculosis, candidiasis, recurrent diarrhoea, failure to thrive and recurrent respiratory infections. Conclusion: On statistical analysis, it was observed that side ef- fects were significantly higher among cases from lower middle socio-economic status (p=0.015) than cases from low socio- economic status. Key words: HIV/AIDS, ARV, side effects, opportunistic infections, caregivers. INTRODUCTION HIV/AIDS in children is a major cause of child- hood morbidity and mortality. 1 Though since the year 2000, there has been significant success in re- ducing the incidence of new HIV infections still AIDS-related illnesses are among the leading causes of infant mortality. 2 According to a report which was released by UNICEF ahead of AIDS day, an estimated 1,20,000 children and adoles- cents aged 0-19 were living with HIV in India in 2017, which accounts for the highest number in South Asia. 3 In the year 2017, in India 22.67(10.92- 40.60) thousand HIV positive women gave birth. 4 With mandatory screening of blood products, the incidence of transfusion-associated HIV infection has decreased to a great extent but still paediatric HIV infection has become an important public health issue due to a sharp increase in infection rates among women. This holds true particularly for India where the major mode of transmission is heterosexual contact. This led to an increase in the number of children infected perinatally. 5 The rate of perinatal transmission of HIV in India is 5.7%, with approximately 23 000 newly born HIV infected children annually (NACO Annual Report, 2013– 2014) Therefore, for the prevention