What’s New in Research? July 2015 Edition

In this newsletter, we review several papers that present new scientific findings on neurodevelopment and early adversity, especially in relation to HIV infection and HIV exposure. The first article broadly examines the evidence to date on the impacts of HIV infection and antiretroviral medication on neurocognitive function, while the second explores the importance of age of treatment onset and persistence of neurocognitive benefits over a child’s early years. The third is a landmark review of evidence indicating that, due to the damage to all aspects of development caused to children reared from a young age in institutions, there is a need to both de-institutionalize young children and prevent the establishment of new orphanages. Also included are two papers that look at nutrition and growth of HIV exposed and infected children. The first study describes impacts on growth and development of children born to women who were themselves perinatally infected, showing second-generation impacts on infant growth. The second, on differences in nutritional status between HIV-infected males and females, indicates that HIV-infected male children are more adversely affected by nutritional status than HIV-infected females. Lastly, we review a report on the potential of massage therapy to improve developmental outcomes of HIV exposed children.