More Resources Are Needed for Pediatric AIDS

April 22,2013

In recent years, in developing countries, adults infected with HIV have had greater access to treatment. But UNAIDS says children still lag behind in accessing antiretroviral drugs, especially those formulated just for children. It warns that most who go untreated will die by their fifth birthday.

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation says progress is being made in preventing new infections in children. It says there’s been a 24 percent reduction in new infections since 2009. Much of that is due to providing antiretrovirals to more HIV positive pregnant women.

Nevertheless, there’s much more to be done.

"We still have way too many children being infected and just in sub-Saharan Africa last year there were 300,000 kids with new infections. That’s way too many. So, we have the new infections and we’re having problems in identifying those kids and getting them on treatment early enough," said Mary Pat Kiefer, the foundation’s senior director for technical leadership.

It’s estimated that globally only 28 percent of children needing HIV treatment received it in 2011. Kiefer says part of the problem lies in many African health care systems, which are not able to link children of HIV positive women to the right services.

"I would say overall that we’re able to identify maybe 50 percent of those HIV exposed kids and test them. Very often the mothers will bring their kids for services at a different place than where the mother received her services during pregnancy. And we still then have problems with the quality of services in some of the facilities and making sure we have everything in a place and can provide the services to the kids," she said.