Teens who were perinatally infected with HIV and received treatment have similar cognitive outcomes compared with their HIV-negative peers, according to research published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. However, researchers observed that HIV-positive adolescents had decreased executive functioning over time, suggestive of earlier brain damage.

“Since many HIV-infected children are aging into adulthood with access and adherence to [combination ART (cART)], the population of people with perinatal HIV infection is growing,” Malon Van den Hof, a PhD student in pediatric infectious diseases at Amsterdam University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues wrote. “Knowledge on the cognitive development of these children using cART is, however, limited.”