After 25 Years of AIDS, Children Still Lag Behind Adults in Access to Research, Prevention and Treatment

WASHINGTON, June 2 /PRNewswire/ — While the past 25 years have produced dramatic advances in the fight against AIDS, the overall response to children has been the most shameful chapter in the history of the epidemic. From the earliest years when pediatricians fought to get AZT for their patients, to today, when world leaders gather at the United Nations to acknowledge the world’s failure to prevent infant HIV infections, children have been grossly neglected in the world’s response to AIDS and continue to fall behind. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation calls on the global community to recognize this continued failure and demand equity for children threatened by HIV.

“The word anniversary implies a celebration, when what we really have is a catastrophic failure for children,” said Pamela Barnes, president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. “The youngest have been an afterthought in AIDS for 25 years, and that must end here. We are repeating the same mistakes today as in the early days of AIDS, and the result is half a million children dying needlessly each year from a virus we know how to prevent and treat.”

Elizabeth Glaser, an impassioned young mother from Southern California, went to Washington, D.C. more than 17 years ago to share her story and express her outrage that children living with AIDS were being neglected in HIV research, prevention and treatment. A sustained battle for private and federal funding for pediatric AIDS research, jumpstarted by Elizabeth and the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, revealed that drug therapies could prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and extend the lives of children living with the virus.

But today there is a renewed need for the outrage Elizabeth Glaser expressed at the outset of the epidemic. Even the simplest HIV interventions that have provided hope to countless children in the U.S. are not reaching children born in the world’s poorer countries. As a result, children in the developing world are becoming infected and dying at shocking rates.

   *  A United Nations report issued Tuesday found that only nine percent of      HIV-positive pregnant women in resource-poor countries are receiving      drugs that can prevent transmission of the virus to their babies.  As a      result, 700,000 children this year — 1,800 a day — will be needlessly      infected with HIV.    *  A UNICEF report issued last week found that of the 500,000 children      with advanced HIV disease in the developing world, less than five      percent of them have the antiretroviral AIDS medications that can      prolong their lives.  Half of all the babies born with HIV will die by      their second birthday without treatment — half a million children will      die of AIDS this year alone.    *  Recent analysis conducted by the Foundation underscores an alarming      fact:  of the 21 antiretroviral drugs on the market, only 9 have been      approved for use in children under age 2.  This leaves health workers      and caregivers with the difficult task of estimating the appropriate      dose of potent medications — drugs that can restore health when      administered properly, but cause dangerous complications with the wrong      dose.   

In the 25th year of this epidemic, the world should be chagrined that children are still overlooked in the fight against AIDS. Although Elizabeth Glaser lost her own battle with AIDS, her life was dedicated to saving the lives of children who needed a voice to demand equal treatment.

“Around the world in many of the communities in which we work, children with HIV die so young because they lack medications we know can help,” said Barnes. “It’s heartbreaking to know that so many more children could grow up healthy if we could just reach them.”

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation was founded 18 years ago in Santa Monica, California by three mothers around a kitchen table. From those humble beginnings, the Foundation has grown to operate in more than 900 sites in 18 countries around the world. Today, the Foundation calls for an unprecedented commitment to the prevention and treatment of AIDS in children everywhere, because every child deserves a lifetime. For more information on the Foundation’s efforts to level the playing field for children in the U.S. and abroad through research, implementation, and advocacy efforts, please visit http://www.pedaids.org/.

Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

CONTACT: Ashley Wolfington of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDSFoundation, +1-202-296-9165, ashley@pedaids.org

Web site: http://www.pedaids.org/