Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 20, 2006

JOHANNESBURG, 20 November (PLUSNEWS) - Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, confirmed on Monday that it is partnering with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in what is set to become the single largest global effort to help children living with HIV/AIDS.

The partnership is to roll out a variety of anti-AIDS services to 500,000 children in 120 countries, including 20 African nations, over the next four years.

Heidi Schwarzwald, an assistant professor at Baylor's International Paediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI), said the collaboration would also mean a huge scale-up of Baylor's initial plan of providing 80,000 children with child-friendly antiretroviral (ARV) formulas during the period.

"It is high time that HIV-positive children received the same level of attention that adults already get. It is a travesty that only one to two percent of all HIV-positive kids who need ARVs are actually accessing them," Schwarzwald told IRIN/PlusNews.

The college is supporting 10,000 children in care and 4,700 on treatment, and earlier this years also launched the 'Paediatric AIDS Corps' initiative, sending 52 doctors to six African countries, with more nurses, pharmacists and social workers expected to be deployed by early next year.

Baylor and UNICEF experts were confident they could provide a comprehensive package of care to even greater numbers of children, and UNICEF spokesman James Elder said the partnership would go a long way in addressing a desperate global situation.

"In Zimbabwe, for instance, there are at least 72 new HIV infections among zero- to 14-year-olds every day, and yet there remains a worrying absence of suitable ARVs. Our figures show that just four percent of all children who need the drugs are getting them," he pointed out.

Of particular concern to Elder were the growing numbers of children being orphaned by the pandemic and left more vulnerable to infection.

Zimbabwe's Child Protection Working Group (CPWG) on Sunday condemned all forms of child abuse, estimating that one child was abused every hour in the Southern African nation, while half of all forms of abuse were of a sexual nature. CPWG charged that child abuse was aggravated by myths that sexually transmitted illnesses, including HIV, could be cured by having sex with a virgin.

Elder shared the group's sentiments, saying, "An orphaned girl is three times more likely to contract HIV than a non-orphaned girl."

Besides rolling much-needed drugs to children already living with the HI virus, Elder suggested that greater effort be made in preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

According to Elder, an estimated 2.3 million children are living with HIV worldwide, most of whom were infected as a result of the lack of sufficient PMTCT programmes.

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