AIDS Medications Lacking for Children

AIDS Medications Lacking for Children

In his World Forum presentation, "The Power of Early Childhood as a Healing Force in the AIDS Crisis," Michael Kelly from Zambia offered this discouraging news about pediatric AIDS medications:

"The diagnosis, care, and treatment of AIDS in infants and young children encounter a range of complexities, from the absence of affordable ways to ascertain whether HIV antibodies found in children under eighteen months of age are their own or their mothers’ to the non-availability of correct dosage sizes and combinations of pediatric anti-retroviral medications. Infant medication is given in either syrup or tablet form. The syrup is bitter and the infant may spit it out; in addition it is expensive and generally needs refrigeration, so that on both counts it exceeds the resources available to the majority of care-givers in resource-poor settings. Tablets suitable for infants and small children either have not been developed or are enormously expensive. Because of this, care-givers in poorer communities must take tablets or capsules meant for adults, break them into pieces and judge what might be the right dosage for a particular child’s height and weight.....

"There is need to overcome these barriers to anti-retroviral treatment for children. This is an issue to which the pharmaceutical industry does not give enough attention. But pressure must be brought to bear on the industry so that it concerns itself with developing “child-appropriate treatment regimes and administration procedures” that will ensure adherence and enhance the prospects of child survival."

Coincidentally, the same day that Michael Kelly made these remarks, Microsoft's Bill Gates remarked that he was raising his contribution from $200 million to $450 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide grants to scientists developing inventions to improve global health. We urge readers of ExchangeEveryDay to contact the Gates Foundation to thank them for their commitment and to encourage them to give priority to supporting the production of pediatric AIDS medication palatable and in appropriate dosages for young children. 

You may want to address your concerns to the head of the Gates Foundation, Rick Klausner, at [email protected].

To read the entire presentation of Michael Kelly, go to http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/presentations/index.php?p=2005_kelly 

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