BEIJING -- China badly needs AIDS drugs for children. Most young HIV carriers
in China either have to take adult drugs or else receive no treatment at all,
experts said.
"Many Chinese children living with HIV/AIDS have no access to suitable
drugs," said Li Qimin, deputy director of China's National Committee for the
Care of Children (CNCCC), at an ongoing Beijing summer camp for kids affected by
AIDS.
"Many kids react strongly to adult formulation drugs, they vomit or become
feverish," Li said.
In China, there are officially 1,535 child HIV sufferers, but health experts
estimate that the real number of infected children is more than 9,000, said Xu
Wenqing, a health official with UNICEF China.
"Drugs are essential to guarantee these kids survive," Xu said, adding that
pediatric AIDS drugs, all imported from overseas, are in short supply in China.
Last year, the U.S. Clinton Foundation provided China with the first batch of
pediatric drugs to fight HIV/AIDS. About 250 children in provinces hard-hit by
AIDS, such as Henan and Yunnan, benefited.
Dr. Christian Voumard, Chair of the United Nations AIDS Theme Group and
UNICEF Representative, said the initiative was a "significant success", but
admitted many children are still given less effective adult formulations and
some have no access at all to life-saving drugs.
UNICEF China does not have statistics on infected kids deprived of treatment,
Xu said, but she knew of kids living without drugs since local doctors were
unsure whether they could be given adult formulation drugs without dramatic side
effects.
Children are given reduced doses of adult drugs, Xu said, but cutting an
adult's pill into half is not a good way to reduce the dose because the
components of a pill are usually not distributed equally.
The dose should vary according to the patient's weight changes, so cutting up
pills is not a good approach, she added.
China's estimate of the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has been
revised downwards from 840,000 to 650,000. Most people are infected by
contaminated blood or by intravenous drug taking.
Health experts believe Asia is the new frontline in the fight against the
killer disease, as the number of AIDS victims in the region is quickly catching
up with Africa.
According to a previous UNICEF report, more than 30,000 children have to live
with HIV or AIDS. Nearly 11,000 of them were newly infected last year. Millions
more children and young people are at high risk of HIV infection or suffer from
stigma and discrimination, it said.
Seventy children orphaned by AIDS or living with sick parents gathered in
Beijing from August 8 for a week-long summer camp. They will live with 70
Beijing families during the camp.
