How many mentally retarded people have AIDS? Does in utero infection by HIV have any impact on IQ?
A. Your first question is very important, but unfortunately impossible to answer directly. First of all, it is difficult to know what is meant by “mentally retarded.” For example, is a person with learning disabilities, but otherwise intelligent, mentally retarded? In the strict medical standpoint, that is not so but some people still consider a severe learning disability to be a form of mental retardation. The second reason it is difficult is that the AIDS virus itself causes mental retardation in some people in its later phases, so that in some cases it would be difficult to know if the mental retardation occurred before or after the HIV infection. Some mentally retarded patients will be at a lower risk for HIV because they will have no exposure to bodily fluid (blood products or sexual activities). However, many people who are mentally retarded actually have frequent sexual relations. It might put them at increase risk for HIV. Fortunately, given today¹s treatments children born to
