NAIROBI, Nov 28 (AFP) - Pharmaceutical companies must develop cheap and child-friendly versions of anti-AIDS drugs if the scourge of the killer disease is to stopped, particularly in impoverished Africa, a global medical charity said Monday.
In a statement released here ahead of World AIDS Day on Thursday, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) urged drug manufacturers to focus on child sufferers of the disease, most of whom live in Africa.
"There is also a desperate need for simple and affordable AIDS tests for babies in resource-poor settings," it said.
"In the absence of child-strength pills that combine all needed drugs in one tablet, medical staff and caregivers are often forced to crush combination pills meant for adults," MSF said.
"As well as being less effective, underdosing may lead to the virus becoming resistant to the treatment, whereas overdosing can be toxic for these youngest patients," it added.
More than 40 million people have HIV or AIDS, 2.3 million of whom are children aged under 15, according to the United Nations.
Nine out of 10 children born with HIV live in Africa, the world's poorest continent, where the majority do not have access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs, according to MSF.
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