The death rates of children with HIV have decreased nine-fold since doctors started prescribing antiretroviral drug cocktails in the mid-1990s, according to findings announced Friday by the National Institutes of Health. The average age of death for HIV-infected youth in the study more than doubled from 8.9 years in 1994 to 18.2 years in 2006. "Most HIV-infected children now reach adulthood," said Lynne Mofenson, M.D., chief of the Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS branch at NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "Will these children have a normal lifespan? Unfortunately, we don't have all the answers yet. Currently, we don't have the means to prevent all the complications of HIV infection." The study tracked 3,553 U.S. children and adolescents infected with HIV.