An Oral Health Survey among HIV-infected children younger than twelve years of age presenting at the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic at Tygerberg Hospital

Abstract

HIV/AIDS remains a global health problem. Orofacial manifestations of HIV/AIDS have been found to be among the first signs of immune suppression and have been used in the clini-cal staging of the disease. Infants and children are prone to opportunistic infections because of the immature immune system. Orofacial manifestations of HIV can therefore be used to predict prog-nosis and progression of infection. The introduction of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has since seen a decline in the development of opportunistic infections and HIV-related orofacial manifestations.