Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Inter Press Service (10.22.09) - Friday, October 30, 2009
Nalisha Kalideen
The outlet for Odetoyinbo's effort is a new, three-year campaign promoting access to antiretrovirals to end mother-to- child transmission of HIV. The outreach, the Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS, also works to improve care for HIV- positive children.
The campaign initially will target six African countries: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, and Nigeria. The goal is to reduce the number of pediatric infections by 80 percent by 2012.
Among the nations targeted by the campaign, Kenya has the highest number of HIV-positive children: 155,000. It is estimated that 90 percent of new pediatric HIV infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa.
One strategy for reducing pediatric AIDS is to prevent or treat HIV infection among women. In 2008, about 20,000 pregnant Nigerian women were being treated with antiretrovirals, but another 210,000 pregnant HIV-positive women were in need.
"The only reason why we have so many children who have HIV is because women are neglected," said Odetoyinbo, who is project director of Nigeria's Positive Action for Treatment Access. "We need to give women access to services for treatment, for detection. You cannot give someone something you do not have. So you can't give your child HIV if you don't have it."
In 2005, the Nigerian president approved free antiretrovirals for the estimated 3.5 million HIV-positive residents in the country at that time.
In Uganda, an HIV-positive activist and doctor said citizens play an important part in management of the disease there.
"In our country, you have civil society on every planning committee," said Dr. Lydia Mungherera, who works with the AIDS Support Organization. "Now we know what is going on, and when things go wrong we are able to assist with a solution."
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