Uganda: Hope for Country's HIV+ Children

	Email This Page Print This Page Comment on this article

The East African (Nairobi)

5 October 2008
Posted to the web 6 October 2008

Nairobi

Last week, the first clinical centre of excellence to provide a comprehensive package of paediatric HIV care and treatment services in East Africa was opened in Uganda.

The Ush1.1 billion ($680,000) centre will provide screening of infants for eligibility for antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), HIV counselling and testing for children aged 0 to 18 years; all children enrolled at the centre will be screened every month for infections like TB, pneumonia, malaria, cancers and skin infections.

The clinic is a timely initiative, given that there is still inadequate access to paediatric HIV care and treatment services in Uganda.

Currently there are 100,000 people on ARVs in Uganda but only 10,000 are children. About 140,000 children (0-5 years) are living with HIV/Aids.

Of these 50,000 are in need of ART but only about 13,000 or 26 per cent are in therapy. The clinic gives hope to all these children.

Read comments. Write your own.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Share this on: Facebook Digg Del.icio.us StumbleUpon Muti

Copyright © 2008 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email >>

Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | My Account

Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement.