[Ip-health] : Advocate for medicines for children living with HIV

Fri Nov 3 05:59:21 2006

 Keep the Promise: HIV and AIDS Campaign
Action Alert
2 November 2006

Advocate for medicines for children living with HIV

Did you know?

*
* Without treatment, half of all children born with HIV in
poor countries die before age two.

*
* In 2005, 2.3 million children under 15 were living with
HIV and AIDS.

*
* Of these, 660,000 need anti-retroviral treatment now but
less than 10% are getting it.

*
* Fewer than 10% of pregnant women living with HIV and AIDS
are receiving treatment that can virtually eliminate
mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

*
* In 2005, 380,000 children under 15 died of AIDS and over
half a million were newly infected with HIV.

*
* Medicines to treat HIV in children can cost four times
more than treatment for adults.

*
* Basic antibiotics can reduce deaths of children from AIDS
as much as 43% by treating opportunistic infections and delaying
the point at which anti-retrovirals are needed.

What can you do?

Take action at http://www.e-alliance.ch/accessmeds_pediatric.jsp:
<http://www.e-alliance.ch/accessmeds_pediatric.jsp>
and tell pharmaceutical companies that they need to provide
equitable access for children living with HIV to diagnostics and
medicines.

At this page you can send an email postcard to four key
pharmaceutical companies, Abbott, Boehringer Ingelheim,
Bristol-Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline. You can also send the
email postcard to friends to tell them about the action.

Background

The proportion of children living with HIV or AIDS who are
receiving treatment is far smaller than the proportion of adults
living with HIV or AIDS and receiving treatment. For adults the
percentage is 20%, but for children it is only
7.5%. Children's deaths are sometimes seen as more
unavoidable, and medicines for children are less profitable.

Children need medicines which are differently formulated
compared to those for adults. All children need lower dosages
than adults. Babies and young children need medicines that can
easily be swallowed. Problems here include:

*
* For many drugs no tests have been done on their
effects on children and a formulation for children has not
been developed and approved for use. This includes the recent
innovations of three-in-one pill combinations which make
treatment far easier.

*
* Trying to divide pills intended for adults into
dosages for children can lead to dangerously imprecise
dosing. Syrup formulations often need refrigeration which is
not available in many regions, and are still hard to dose
correctly. For all but the youngest of babies, small solid
pills of the appropriate dosage are preferable.

*
* Some formulations for children may not have been
marketed outside of rich countries and thus are not available
elsewhere.

*
* Where formulations are available, they are often more
expensive than adult formulations, as mentioned
above.

*
* Even where medicines, such as basic antibiotics, are
available and affordable, many treatment programs are not yet
sufficiently informed and focused on treatment for children
and are thus not providing access to medicines.

Diagnosis of HIV is usually done on the basis of the presence
of antibodies. However babies acquire their mother's antibodies,
which may persist until they are 18 months old. Therefore it is
not possible to use this test to see if the virus has been
transmitted to the baby of an HIV positive mother. However, as
half those infected will die before they are two unless they get
treatment, diagnosis is needed far earlier. Once diagnosed,
regular testing is needed to see when a child living with HIV
needs to start treatment.

Alternative diagnostic tests which look directly for the
virus are available but require expensive laboratory equipment,
complex testing, reliable electricity supplies and highly
trained staff. One development is a technique that allows blood
to be taken to a laboratory for testing, but this still relies
on the existence of an equipped laboratory within reach of
transport links. What is needed is a simple, cheap diagnostic
test that can be carried out on the spot.

Further resources on pediatric AIDS are available at
http://www.e-alliance.ch/accessmeds_pediatric.jsp#resources:
<http://www.e-alliance.ch/accessmeds_pediatric.jsp#resources>

World AIDS Day

There is now one month to World AIDS Day on 1 December, which
has the theme "Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise". Within this
the EAA is focusing on accountability around access to medicines
to treat HIV and AIDS. Encourage people in your church or
organization to take this action in the run up to World AIDS
Day.

More resources for World AIDS Day, including an ecumenical
liturgy which focuses on access to medicines, are available at
http://www.e-alliance.ch/hiv_resources.jsp:
<http://www.e-alliance.ch/hiv_resources.jsp>

WHO Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual
Property

As reported in previous bulletins, the World Health
Organization (WHO) has set up a working group to look at
alternative ways of supporting research and development on
diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries
(see Trade for People Campaign Bulletin 2/2006 or Keep the
Promise: HIV and AIDS Campaign Bulletin 2/2006 at
http://www.e-alliance.ch/newsletters.jsp:
<http://www.e-alliance.ch/newsletters.jsp>  for more information)

WHO has now set up an online consultation on the work of this
group, and is encouraging civil society groups to contribute
their opinions. The consultation is open between 1-15 November
and is at http://igwg.who.int/phi/: <http://igwg.who.int/phi/>

For past Action Alerts and Bulletins from the HIV and AIDS campaign, see
http://www.e-alliance.ch/newsletters.jsp:
<http://www.e-alliance.ch/newsletters.jsp>

================================================================

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance is a broad international
network of churches and Christian organizations
cooperating in advocacy on global trade and HIV and
AIDS. The Alliance is based in Geneva, Switzerland. For
more information, see http://www.e-alliance.ch/: <http://www.e-alliance.ch/>

  --
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
Consumer Project on Technology in London
24, Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX,UK.
Tel:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252.
Mob:+44(0)790 386 4642. Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607
http://www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA .Tel.:
+1.202.332.2670,Fax: +1.202.332.2673

Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
1 Route des  Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727