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HIV/AIDS (Paediatric Care)

Answer

Taking Action, the UK's strategy for tackling HIV and AIDS in the developing world, published in 2004, states that, our support for children affected by AIDS is reflected in all of DFID's country assistance plans in all affected countries. This comprehensive approach includes prevention, care and treatment as well as recognising the impact AIDS has on society, including increasing orphan rates. DFID's expenditure reporting reflects this comprehensive approach and given the aid instruments we use, it is not possible to disaggregate between moneys spent on treatment and those used for other AIDS related activities.The UK funds AIDS programmes in nearly 40 countries and works with a variety of organisations in respect of children affected by AIDS. DFID's spend on AIDS is not solely through bilateral programmes. A significant proportion is spent through multilateral instruments including the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the World Bank, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO); these play a role in funding paediatric treatment and care. The UK also finances a wide range of Civil Society organisations, including local NGOs such as the Dananai and Mavambo Trust in Zimbabwe, who are ensuring over 4,000 vulnerable children are able to attend school and that traumatised children receive appropriate counselling.In Malawi, for example, as part of DFIDs support to the National AIDS programmes, there are now over 60 facilities in Malawi delivering anti retroviral therapy for HIV and over 37,000 people on treatment. The numbers are increasing, around 4,500 people starting on therapy in the first three months of last year. 95 per cent. are over 13 years old and 81 per cent. of people who have ever taken treatment are alive. The UK will continue to advocate for comprehensive AIDS programmes that meet the needs of children as well as adults.The WHO reports¹ that access to HIV care and anti-retroviral therapy has not been extended widely to children. However, data is incomplete and the UK has urged the WHO, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and others to track the extent to which treatment and care programmes are meeting the needs of the poor, women and children.The Global Partners Forum on Children Affected by HIV and AIDS, which the UK is hosting in early February, will explore the current obstacles to treatment of children with HIV and AIDS, as well as other services and needs. In addition, the Global Steering Committee on Scaling up Towards Universal Access, which in turn is due to report to the UN General Assembly High Level meeting in June 2006, is considering the obstacles to scaling up access to treatment for children, including the lack of appropriate and effective diagnostic tools and treatments.Following publication of the DFID-funded Medical Research Council research findings, the WHO, UNAIDS and UNICEF issued a joint statement in November 2004 on the use of cotrimoxazole as a prophylaxis in HIV exposed and HIV affected children.The joint statement advocates that prophylactic dosing with Cotrimoxazole for HIV infected children with any sign or symptoms suggestive of HIV is a key intervention that should be offered as part of a basic package of care to reduce morbidity and mortality.The document further states that Cotrimoxazole prophylaxis is also a crucial potentially life saving intervention that should be given to all HIV exposed children born to HIV- infected mothers, in settings where HIV infection status cannot be reliably confirmed in the first 18 months of life.Following the joint statement, Cotrimoxazole is now universally accepted as a standard treatment package for all children exposed to HIV and on treatment and it is advocated for all children with HIV, regardless of whether they are receiving treatment.As a follow on to the Cotrimoxazole study DFID is providing funding support for a further trial through the Medical Research Council to examine the best use of anti-retrovirals for children."¹Progress on Global Access to HIV Antiretroviral Therapy—an update on ““3 by 5”” June 2005"

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

441 c1329-30W; 43199

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Children Development aid Expenditure Drugs HIV/AIDS Medical treatments Malawi

Contains statistics

Yes