ASIA/THAILAND - The race against AIDS forgets children: an estimated 50% of babies born HIV+ die before they reach the age of two says Medecines sans Frontieres

Wednesday, 14 July 2004

Bangkok (Fides Service) - Multinational pharmaceutical companies and governments are not interested in developing therapies and means of diagnosis for children affected by HIV /AIDS. This was denounced by Doctors without Frontiers (MSF) at the International Aids Conference in Bangkok.
In developing countries 2.5 children under 15 are HIV+ and only very few have access to treatment and even for these lucky ones therapy is not easy
In 2003, the virus infected 700,000 children under 15 and 88.6% of them lived in Sub-Saharan Africa. The forecast is not encouraging: about 50% of babies born HIV+ die before they are two years old.
In December 2000 MSF started giving antiretroviral treatment to HIV+ children. In March 2004 children under 13 represented 5% of 13,000 patients treated by MSF in 25 countries. A percentage still low due to enormous difficulties caused by lack of special therapy for children.
To treat HIV+ children MSF workers resort to their own “creativity” using games and other means to help the little patients understand the reason for the treatment. The results are quite successful.
But the challenges are not lacking: the first is to see whether the child is HIV+; Standard testing is not reliable for babies less than 18 month old. The second is that there is no specific paediatric antiretroviral therapy which means children are given adult medicine in halved pills or smaller injections or smaller doses of syrup. The procedure is complicated and does not always guarantee adherence to therapy or correct dosage usually calculated on the basis of weight and changed as the child grows.
Researchers are trying to develop paediatric therapies putting the different drugs into one pill or smaller doses of syrup, but since there is no profit to be made on the market pharmaceutical companies are not investing enough in this branch of research. (AP/MSF) (14/7/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:40; Parole:513)


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