| 29th
May, 2006
Only one in 20 children who need HIV treatment receive
it, according to a new report highlighting the plight of children
suffering from AIDS.
The report - released by the Global Movement for Children,
a network of some of the world’s largest child avocacy
organisations - shows that while adults account for the majority
of those people living with HIV, children represent a disproportionate
number of those seeking immediate treatment.
Saving Lives: Children’s right to HIV and AIDS treatment
says that alarmingly few drugs are available in formulations
that are affordable and able to be administered to children.
“Without treatment, most children with HIV will die
before their fifth birthday,” says Dean Hirsch, chairman
of the Global Movement for Children and president of World
Vision International.
“These children are missing out on treatment because
they are missing from the global AIDS agenda.”
More than 90 per cent of children with HIV live in sub-Saharan
Africa where children have the least access to treatment.
As of June last year, it was estimated that four million children
were in need of cotrimoxazole, an antibiotic which costs only
several cents a day per child and prevents life-threatening
infections in HIV-infected children and infants born to HIV
positive mothers. It can also delay the onset of AIDS.
The GMC network has called for the development of simple and
affordable diagnostic tests, an increase in research for childn
specific treatment, to improve health care systems of developing
countries so that drug delivery systems can be improved and
for child-specific treatment targets to be established.
- DAVID ADAMS
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