Against AIDS forgotten by children

2004/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza

Thanks to the work of researchers, medicines to fight AIDS are getting better and methods to diagnose are constantly improving. But always thinking about adults.

This has been denounced by experts who have recalled, unlike developed countries, that in the rest of countries children infected with AIDS are many. In fact, 700,000 children under the age of 15 were infected in 2003, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, more than half of children with AIDS die before age two.

It seems that one of the problems is that there is no adequate way to diagnose. In fact, in children younger than 18 months, traditional tests give false positives when detecting antibodies from their mother.

On the other hand, there are syrups to treat children, but few studies have been done on doses and effects, and they are also very expensive. In addition, most syrups are mixed with water and in some African countries it is really difficult to get clean water.