Pediatrics Urge for Child Friendly HIV Drugs
The American Academy of Pediatrics says more child-friendly HIV drugs are needed, including smaller pills and three-in-one tablets for kids, to help address a crisis affecting more than 2 million youngsters globally.
In a new policy statement endorsed by 19 international groups including the World Health Organization, the academy outlines barriers and solutions to an issue that is critical in developing regions.
Havens, an infectious disease specialist at the Medical College of Wisconsin says, some HIV drugs come as bottled liquids that require refrigeration. That poses a problem in rural countries, where some families travel for days by foot to get several months’ supply of bottled medicine that weighs as much as the infected child.
Pills pose a separate problem. Caregivers sometimes break or crush adult-dose tablets to give youngsters smaller amounts, but that results in inexact and inappropriate doses, the policy statement says.
Havens hope that this outline … will give some guidance to the pharmaceutical industry about where it might be best for them to put some of their energies.
The statement also is designed to raise awareness among policymakers, he said, noting that two federal measures encouraging research and development of medicines for children are up for reauthorization this year.
“It’s important for lawmakers to know this issue is important,” Havens said.
The statement was prepared for release Monday in April’s Pediatrics, the academy’s monthly medical journal.
While much attention has been focused on AIDS in Africa, limited access to HIV medicine and treatment is also an issue in Eastern Europe, “where the number of newly infected infants is still high,” said Dr. Carlo Giaquinto of the Pediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS, whose group is among those that have endorsed the academy’s statement.
