Global Fund Round 6--Pediatric Treatment and Prevention Toolkit

[Guest guest]

Global Fund Round 6--Pediatric Treatment and Prevention Toolkit

The Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria offers

developing countries the opportunity to implement comprehensive

plans to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS. To encourage countries to

secure Global Fund grants to support programs for the treatment and

prevention of pediatric HIV/AIDS, the Global AIDS Alliance has

compiled a new Global Fund Round 6 Pediatric Treatment and

Prevention Toolkit.

As the epidemic has grown, most treatment and prevention programs

have neglected the needs of HIV-positive children and the children

of HIV-positive mothers. There are currently 2.3 million children

living with HIV/AIDS, and 570,000 children died of AIDS-related

diseases in 2005. But the Global Fund's support for programs to

prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in children is not nearly proportional to

the scope of the pediatric AIDS epidemic; only five proposals that

specifically mention pediatric treatment received funding during the

first five rounds of Global Fund grants.

While children account for 17% of global AIDS deaths, they make up

only 6% of those currently receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.

In July 2005, GAA published an advocacy brief that provided the

framework for a new " Treat the Children " advocacy campaign that

seeks to ensure that 15% of all ARV treatment services are delivered

to children 15 years of age and younger. Increased Global Fund

investments in pediatric treatment and prevention programs will be

essential to meeting this goal.

The new Pediatric Treatment and Prevention Toolkit demonstrates the

international community's commitment to scaling up programs for

children affected by HIV/AIDS. The toolkit contains documents

developed by organizations such as the World Health Organization and

UNICEF that outline medically accepted algorithms for the diagnosis,

treatment, and care of children with HIV/AIDS and are intended to

aid governments in training healthcare workers in pediatrics. The

toolkit also details what drugs are available at which doses and

offers tools for anticipating demand in order to facilitate

effective drug procurement. Finally, there are documents to assist

countries in submitting pediatric treatment grant proposals to the

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

The toolkit contains the following documents:

Pediatric Prevention, Treatment, and Care Documents

1. WHO's " Antiretroviral therapy of HIV infection in infants and

children in resource-limited settings "

2. UNICEF's " Pediatric Care Consultation "

3. African Network for the Care of Children Affected by

AIDS' " Handbook on Pediatric AIDS in Africa "

Procurement Documents

4. Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative's " Pediatric Formulation Demand

Forecasting Tool "

Global Fund Grant Writing Documents

5. A mock pediatric treatment and prevention grant proposal prepared

by WHO

6. Aidspan's " Guide to Developing Global Fund Proposals to Benefit

Children Affected by HIV/AIDS "

Please email Dr. Siobhan Crowley at crowleys@... to request a

copy of WHO's " Antiretroviral therapy of HIV infection in infants

and children in resource-limited settings " guidelines.

The World Health Organization will hold the following regional

workshops for training in pediatric treatment and care:

Eastern Mediterranean Region: May 29-June 1, 2006, in Cairo

South-East Asian Region: June 5, 2006

African Region: June 19, 2006

http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/Pediatric_Treatment_and_Prevention_

Toolkit.cfm

" Zeitz "

e-mail: <pzeitz@...>

Cross posted from AIDS treatment