Health South Africa : efforts to ARV for kids are still in their infancy

An interesting article noting the challenges of supplying the medicines to HIV positive children who have received little attention. Early in 2004 the South African national programme to provide anti-retrovirals (ARVs) became operational. There is now hope that this will bring opportunities for under 14 year olds including very young children to gain more access to the drugs. The government is seeking to treat over 50,000 people per year under the ARV programme. In private clinics it costs almost US$93 to put a child on ARV for one month although this has halved since two years ago. Doctors and health officials are debating about what age is right for a child to start ARV treatment although theoretically it can start as soon as it is born. Doctors Without Borders advises that treatment should start as soon as a child is discovered to be HIV positive so that the immune system is bolstered