Скачать или смотреть NEW Feature on difficulties doctors have in treating children with HIV

(30 Nov 2007)
1. Mother carrying baby walking into the pharmacist's office at the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) clinic
2. Close of baby's face
3. Close of pharmacist writing dosage on bottled medicine
4. Wide of pharmacist handing over medicine to patient
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Victor Edalia, Pharmacist at the MFS (Doctors without Borders) clinic:
"In Kenya, we don't have any company that is producing anti-retroviral drugs regardless of the age, so we have actually a problem in the dosages of children's drugs because we are using the adult doses. Unless it's a child below six kilogrammes that's when a child gets the syrups, so we are forced to use adult doses."
6. Various of medicines
7. Various of mothers and their babies in waiting room
8. Close up of baby playing with bottle
9. Celine Aubin, Pharmacist for MSF at her desk
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Celine Aubin, MSF Pharmacist:
"There are 2.3 (m) million children infected by HIV AIDS around the world. Among them 90 percent are in Africa and if they are not getting any treatment, one in four will die before their second birthday."
11. Mid of doctor placing baby on scales
12. Two mothers and their babies waiting at clinic
13. Close of baby's face
STORYLINE:
Pharmacists working for the medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) in Kenya are struggling to treat HIV positive children because only adult sized doses are manufactured.
At a Medecins Sans Frontieres' clinic in Mathare, a slum in the capital Nairobi, the pharmacist explained why.
"We have actually a problem in the dosages of children's drugs because we are using the adult doses," Victor Edalia a pharmacist at a Medecins Sans Frontieres' clinic in Mathare, a slum in the capital Nairobi said.
"Unless it's a child below six kilogrammes that's when a child gets the syrups, so we are forced to use adult doses," he added.
Medical staff at the clinic told AP Television how a quarter of the children diagnosed with the disease will not live to see their second birthday.
"There are 2.3 (m) million children infected by HIV AIDS around the world. Among them 90 percent are in Africa and if they are not getting any treatment, one in four will die before their second birthday," Celine Aubin said.
Infants in Kenya who have gotten the virus from parents who have since died mostly rely on other family members or guardians to take them to the nearest clinic.
For the majority of people living in rural areas this can mean one to two days of travelling, which decreases the likelihood of regular visits for those that cannot afford to make the journey.
Children that are lucky enough to have access to clinics are then treated with unsuitable anti retro-viral drugs.
Although the correct formulations for children exist, the World Health Organisation is yet to list these products in its pre-qualification programme.
It leaves thousands of child HIV sufferers worldwide without access to suitable anti-retroviral doses.
In July MSF released Paediatric AIDS Treatment Data which confirmed concerns over the effectiveness of treating children that have no access to appropriate paediatric AIDS drug formulations.
Because these formulations have not been available for children, their treatment involves halving an adult dose by cutting tablets in two, or by giving them syrups that are hard to measure and swallow.
This method of dosing and administration can result in children receiving either too little or too much of the dose.

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