Care of region’s HIV/AIDS child sufferers inadequate

UNAIDS report that AIDS is now the leading cause of death in the Caribbean (UNAIDS/P. Virot)

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, August 6, 2008 – Despite making advancements in expanding care to adults with HIV/AIDS, Latin America and the Caribbean has not made sufficient progress in the care of children with the disease and preventing mother to child transmission.

That was one of the conclusions in the article Children and HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean, by the HIV/AIDS specialists from UNICEF and PAHO/WHO, Vivian López and Mónica Alonso, published in the newsletter Challenges,  a periodic publication that analyzes progress towards the Millennium Development Goals from a child rights perspective.

“In Latin America and the Caribbean, over 55,000 children under the age of 15 lived with the virus last year,” the article said.

“Children continue to fall behind, even though HIV progresses more rapidly and aggressively in children than in adults. In Latin America and the Caribbean, progress in the prevention and diagnosis of the disease in children remains unsatisfactory, in spite of the existence of adequate means to mitigate the pandemic.”

The authors asserted that lack of prevention in the vertical transmission of HIV - from mother to child - increases the number of babies born with the disease, and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among small children, especially in developing countries.

“Regionally, the vast majority of children with HIV were infected through mother-to-child transmission - when a pregnant HIV-positive woman passes the virus on to her baby during pregnancy, labour, delivery, or through breastfeeding.  Children may also acquire the virus through contaminated blood transfusion, blood products, needles and syringes, as well as through sexual abuse,” it said.

In the absence of any intervention, the risk of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV is approximately 15-30 per cent if the mother does not breastfeed the child. This risk can rise to as high as 30-45 per cent with prolonged breastfeeding, said the authors. However, the risk of transmission can be reduced to less than 2 per cent with simple, inexpensive and effective interventions, they added.

The researchers said that it is possible to scale up treatment for children infected with HIV in developing countries by increasing early diagnosis programmes, countries should allocate resources to ensure ample availability of viral testing, thus improving long-term survival of infected children.

They added that governments should also eliminate barriers imposed through pricing, tariffs and trade, regulatory policy, and research and development, so as to accelerate access to affordable, quality HIV medicines and diagnostics.