UGANDA: New centre to boost
paediatric HIV care
KAMPALA, 10 October 2008 (PlusNews)
- Children living with HIV in Uganda
have been given greater access to
treatment with a new paediatric HIV
care centre opened at the main
referral hospital in the capital,
Kampala.
More than 20,000 children are
infected with HIV every year, and 50
percent of them die before their
second birthday.
"There is still inadequate access to
paediatric HIV care and treatment
services in Uganda," the executive
director of the centre, Dr Addy
Kekitiinwa, said at the opening.
"Out of the 330 active
antiretroviral (ARV) therapy centres
in Uganda, only 110 are able to
provide paediatric HIV care
services, and most of these are
located in urban centres."
The centre at Mulago Hospital –
supported by the Baylor
International Paediatric AIDS
Initiative - is the first to provide
a comprehensive package of HIV care
and treatment services for children
and adolescents infected or exposed
to HIV, including testing,
treatment, counselling of children
and their families, and training
healthcare professionals in the
management of paediatric HIV.
"Children born of HIV-positive
mothers whose status is not known,
or those that are HIV-positive but
still breastfeeding, are the main
beneficiaries of this centre," said
Dr Vincent Bagambe, publicity
secretary of Baylor-Uganda.
"Everybody is free to come for HIV
testing - all children who test
HIV-positive will be enrolled into
the clinic for chronic care, and
HIV-positive parents who have
children in the clinic will be given
an opportunity to enrol if they
wish."
Baylor has operated in Uganda since
2003, when it set up a paediatric
infectious diseases clinic at Mulago
hospital; today, more than 7,500
children and caregivers receive
HIV/AIDS care and are routinely
followed up.
The new clinic, costing an estimated
US$680,000, was funded by the United
States Centres for Disease Control,
the US President's Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and global
pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers
Squibb, among others.
Baylor-Uganda supports 44 ARV
treatment centres around the
country, mostly in district
hospitals and clinics.
Uganda has an estimated 100,000
people on ARVs, but only 10,000 of
them are children.
en/kr/he
Themes: (IRIN) Children, (IRIN)
HIV/AIDS (PlusNews)
[ENDS]
Report can be found online at:
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ReportId=80860
[This report does not necessarily
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