Research in Pediatric HIV
Despite the sweeping problems the solutions are becoming more creative, but solutions for all the issues that come with HIV/AIDS have yet to be solved.
According to Dr. Julio Montaner, from BC, the fact that researchers have been able to create a treatment for HIV/AIDS that is one pill once a day is almost unbelievable considering it was thought to be impossible 10 years ago.
Today's plenary session spoke to how there needs to be an active implementation of all the research.
Many staggering statistics were presented: 14 per cent of all new infections are in children that is (700 000 out of 4.9 million) and children make up 18 per cent of all AIDS death. There are 14 million AIDS orphans in the world and that number is growing.
But the researcher being done on how to improve the life of children is providing many who work in the field a lot of hope.
"The risk of death of HIV infected and uninfected children is halved - IF - the mother survives," said Ruth Nduati, from the University of Nairobi.
She is a pediatrician that sees the effect of these new policies on Children. She explained that to keep these children alive treatment needed to include the mother and family.
In Kenya where she works they have developed a new courier system that allows infants access to PCR and P24 antigen testing. These tests can only be performed in research centres so originally they could not be accessed by the public who lived in rural areas. But now using this new courier system spots of dried blood can be taken to these centres and the results returned in a timely manner. And without advancement of these test procedures to be able to use dried blood instead of a new sample the new courier system wouldn't have mattered.
Now what remains is a bizarre problem - the cost of testing children. Adults can test for free but for children there are fees.
The other concern that need to be address is the huge shortage of health care workers that can take these samples or provide the drugs. According to Nduati Africa need 620 000 nurses to be able to adequately distribute the ART.
She wants all HIV/AIDS health care workers to realize that despite a lack of work in the area of pediatric HIV/AIDS they shouldn't ignore the problem.
"No matter what your level of resources there is always something that can be done for the HIV infected child," she said.
According to Dr. Julio Montaner, from BC, the fact that researchers have been able to create a treatment for HIV/AIDS that is one pill once a day is almost unbelievable considering it was thought to be impossible 10 years ago.
Today's plenary session spoke to how there needs to be an active implementation of all the research.
Many staggering statistics were presented: 14 per cent of all new infections are in children that is (700 000 out of 4.9 million) and children make up 18 per cent of all AIDS death. There are 14 million AIDS orphans in the world and that number is growing.
But the researcher being done on how to improve the life of children is providing many who work in the field a lot of hope.
"The risk of death of HIV infected and uninfected children is halved - IF - the mother survives," said Ruth Nduati, from the University of Nairobi.
She is a pediatrician that sees the effect of these new policies on Children. She explained that to keep these children alive treatment needed to include the mother and family.
In Kenya where she works they have developed a new courier system that allows infants access to PCR and P24 antigen testing. These tests can only be performed in research centres so originally they could not be accessed by the public who lived in rural areas. But now using this new courier system spots of dried blood can be taken to these centres and the results returned in a timely manner. And without advancement of these test procedures to be able to use dried blood instead of a new sample the new courier system wouldn't have mattered.
Now what remains is a bizarre problem - the cost of testing children. Adults can test for free but for children there are fees.
The other concern that need to be address is the huge shortage of health care workers that can take these samples or provide the drugs. According to Nduati Africa need 620 000 nurses to be able to adequately distribute the ART.
She wants all HIV/AIDS health care workers to realize that despite a lack of work in the area of pediatric HIV/AIDS they shouldn't ignore the problem.
"No matter what your level of resources there is always something that can be done for the HIV infected child," she said.
posted by Angela at 8:42 AM
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