Presenter: Sophia Tarzaban
Mentor: Janis Weeks
Oral Presentation
Major: Human Physiology
Research has displayed that children living with HIV diagnoses have showed signs of progressive encephalopathy; and these children exhibited higher rates of residual neurologic, cognitive, and scholastic impairment compared
with the average school age child. My research highlights the fact that antiretroviral drug treatments (ARVs) are developmentally unsafe to be administered to infants, children, and adolescents, due to the decreased neurocognitive development that is displayed as they progress into adulthood. In addition, my research exposes the physiological mechanism that causes HIV to damage the developing brain of infants. My goal is to draw awareness to this issue by arguing that these children require special attention and are too often overlooked, in order to help prevent them from losing their right to an education.The data I collected is from a review of over 30 research papers and will be presented as a meta-analysis of relevant cognition testing performed on children born with HIV. These cognitive assessments provide statistical comparisons that are used to compare and contrast scholastic performance in various disciplines.
My research is important as it displays strong evidence that ARVs are not a safe treatment method for combating HIV in youth and adolescents. While ARVs are the current, most effective treatment in increasing child mortality, they are also increasing the rates of encephalopathy amongst school children. Discovering a new, safer method of treatment for HIV+ children could produce a generation of adolescents and adults who are not only immunologically stable, but also cognitively sound.