CLEAC (Comparison of Late Versus Early Antiretroviral Therapy in HIV-infected Children)

The study aims to define and compare the immunological characteristics (lymphocyte subpopulations, specific immunity against HIV, lymphocyte activation, inflammatory parameters) and the virological characteristics (study of viral reservoir) between 2 groups of vertically-HIV-1-infected children, between 5 and 17-year-of-age, who started cART before 6 months-of-age ("early treatment" group) or after 24 months-of-age ("late treatment" group) with an initial virologic success (HIV-1 RNA \<400 copies / mL reached no later than 24 months after the start of cART), whatever the later evolution of the viremia. Moreover, the viral reservoir will be deeply characterized in 10 children (5 patients in each group) with sustained control of the HIV-1 viremia under cART (≥ 90% of HIV-1 RNA measures \<400 copies /mL): quantification of the reservoir in the lymphocyte subpopulations and study of the inductibility of the viral reservoir.