Stuttering is an interruption of the normal flow of speech, which takes on many different patterns. Commonly, it involves either saying a string of repeated sounds or making abnormal pauses during speech. In early childhood, stuttering is sometimes part of normal speech development. In fact, about 5% of all young children go through a brief period of stuttering when they are learning to talk. Stuttering typically is first noticed between the ages of 2 and 5. It usually goes away on its own within a matter of months. In a small number of children (around 1%), stuttering continues and may get worse. Boys are more likely to stutter than girls.
In addition, normal problems with fluency tend to come and go, or happen only at certain times (such as when a child is tired or excited), but true stuttering is present most of the time. Once a child begins to stutter, he or she may feel embarrassed, self-conscious or anxious when asked to speak. The child may find it hard to socialize with friends and also may intentionally avoid situations where talking is expected, such as telephone calls, classroom discussions and school plays. Somewhat unexpectedly, many children who stutter have no problem when they sing. According to some experts, this is because speaking and singing often come from opposite sides of the brain, especially in right-handed people.
Lower respiratory tract infections are, in people with HIV, the most common cause of hospitalization in an intensive care unit (ICU), according to a 2007 report from University College Hospital (UCH), London. Nearly half of people with HIV admitted to ICUs (48%) had a pulmonary (lung) infection, with Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) and bacterial pneumonia being the diagnosis in 80% of them. A 2009 US study reported about 40% of HIV-positive people in intensive care were admitted with respiratory failure, including pneumonia and other lung conditions such as emphysema.