International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health | 2015 | Vol 4 | Issue 6 773 Access this article online Website: http://www.ijmsph.com Quick Response Code: DOI: 10.5455/ijmsph.2015.02012015156 Research Article Sociodemographic profle and health status of children living with HIV–AIDS attached to an NGO (ADHAR) of Ahmedabad city Nilesh Thakor 1 , Rajendra N Gadhavi 2 , Pradip Damor 3 , Ushma Baranda 4 , Samir Bhagora 5 , Nisarg Patel 1 1 Department of Community Medicine, GMERS Medical College, Dharpur-Patan, Gujarat, India. 2 Gujarat State AIDS Control Society (GSACS), Government of Gujarat, Gujarat, India. 3 Department of Pulmonary Medicine, GMERS Medical College, Dharpur-Patan, Gujarat, India. 4 Department of Anaesthesiology, GMERS Medical College, Dharpur-Patan, Gujarat, India. 5 Department of Physiology, GMERS Medical College, Dharpur-Patan, Gujarat, India. Correspondence to: Nilesh Thakor, E-mail: drnileshthakor@yahoo.co.in Received January 2, 2015. Accepted January 24, 2015 Introduction Since eternity, the greatest scourges of mankind have been challenged and overcome in different ages and different parts of the world. Some of the glaring examples are plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, and polio. However, the nature keeps throwing up the new challenges to test our strength and the will to survive. The biggest threat to the mankind today from Background: Acquired immunodefciency syndrome (AIDS) has emerged as one of the most serious public health problems in India. Objectives: This study was conducted (1) to study the sociodemographic profle of children living with HIV/ AIDS, (2) to study health profle in detail of children living with HIV/AIDS, and (3) to study and fnd out the route of transmission. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. A semi-structured and pretested pro forma w a s used to interview and examine HIV+ children. Prior verbal and written consent was taken from parents of children. This study included 90 HIV+ children (5–14 years) related to ADHAR, an NGO of Ahmedabad city, during the month of April to June 2011. Results: This study included 90 HIV+ children (age range, 5–14 years; 53% female and 47% male). Of them, 65 (72.2%) were in 5–9 years (primary school) age group; 30% were school dropouts. Majority of children (51, 56.7%) belonged to social class 4. Fifty-nine (65.5%) children had both parents infected with HIV. In 63% cases, only parents knew HIV-positive status of their children, and in 37% cases parents as well as others (friends, teachers, and other relatives) knew the HIV-positive status. Twenty-three (25.5%) children had poor hygiene habits. Mothers of 40% and fathers of 25.6% children were illiterate. Sixty (66.6%) children were receiving antiretroviral therapy. The overall prevalence of malnutrition in this study was 20%. Twenty-two (24.4%) children had signs of vitamin B complex defciency. Prevalence of anemia in these children was 62.2%. Conclusion: Poor nutritional status, hygiene, and various nutritional defciencies among these children need great attention and health education needs to be imparted. KEY WORDS: HIV, AIDS, pediatric HIV, sociodemographic profle, ART Abstract International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health Online 2015. © 2015 Nilesh Thakor. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.