Save Indian Children living with HIV/AIDS: ACT NOW

[Guest guest]

Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative (SHAII)

Global AIDS Alliance (GAA)

ACTION ALERT: Do you care about children?

Do you want to make a difference in lives of millions of children living with

HIV/AIDS?

Join us NOW to help children living with HIV/AIDS get the treatment they need!

A fax, letter, or email from you can make all the difference!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Many of you helped SHAII (www.shaii.org) and Global Campaign Against Indian

Patents Act (www.gcaipa.net ) with the campaign to oppose amendments to the

Indian Patents Act that threatened access to affordable generic medicines for

millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in poor countries. Together, we helped

secure significant positive changes in the proposed amendments.

Now, we need your help to address the crisis of children affected by HIV/AIDS.

In 2005, more than 60,000 children died of AIDS in India, and roughly 75,000

Indian children were newly infected with HIV.

There are now some 250,000 HIV-positive children living in India. Less than 4%

are receiving any antiretroviral therapy (ART). But despite the scale of the

problem, the Indian government currently has no plan to provide pediatric AIDS

treatment.

Pressure from concerned individuals like you can help persuade Indian leaders

that they must do more to meet the needs of children with HIV/AIDS.

The resources are there. Just a few simple changes are needed to ensure

treatment for children with HIV/AIDS. Specifically, we are asking the Indian

government to:

Develop India-specific pediatric care guidelines

Make pediatric drugs available through government programs

Train healthcare providers in prevention and treatment of pediatric HIV/AIDS

Please take the time to mail, fax, or email a letter to tell Indian policymakers

that the world is watching and they can no longer neglect children.

You can use the letter below … or write one of your own!

Solidarity,

Vineeta

Dr. Vineeta Gupta

Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative

Email: vineeta@...

Contact information of the Indian officials:

Dr. Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister of India

Room No. 152, South Block,

New Delhi 110001

Fax 91-11-23019545

Email: pmosb@...

Dr. Anbumanu Ramadoss

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare

Nirman Bhawan

New Delhi 110011

Fax: 91-11-23792341

Email: hfm@...

Ms. Sujatha Rao

Director General, National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)

Chandralok Building, 9th floor

36 Janpath

New Delhi 110001

Fax: 91-11-23731746

Email: asdg@...

Dr. DeCock

Director of HIV/AIDS, World Health Organization (WHO)

20, Avenue appia

ch-1211 Geneva 27

Switzerland

Email: hiv-aids@...

Dear __________________:

There are approximately 250,000 HIV-positive children now living in India, fewer

than 4% of whom are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). In 2005, there were

roughly 75,000 new pediatric HIV infections nationwide, and 60,000 Indian

children died of AIDS. The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) can no

longer ignore the growing problem of pediatric HIV/AIDS and must implement

widespread treatment and prevention programs.

Currently, the few children receiving AIDS treatment take fractions of adult

medications, and many healthcare workers are not properly trained in pediatric

care. To help address these problems, NACO must issue pediatric guidelines, and

pediatric antiretroviral medications should be distributed through

government-sponsored treatment centers. Without official guidelines, healthcare

workers in India will remain reluctant to initiate pediatric treatment, and

children will continue to die of AIDS unnecessarily. The World Health

Organization (WHO) recently released pediatric treatment guidelines that could

serve as a model for India-specific guidelines, and action to formalize such

guidelines should be taken without further delay.

WHO’s guidelines also include drug dosing by weight band, which helps ensure the

safety and effectiveness of ART for children of all ages. NACO no longer has

any excuse not to provide ART to children in all government-sponsored centers

using properly formulated pediatric drugs instead of fractions of adult

medications. The development of India-specific pediatric care guidelines and

the provision of pediatric drug formulations will also help non-governmental

organizations throughout India establish and scale up their own pediatric

treatment programs.

NACO does not distribute any of the available pediatric drugs, including the

combination pediatric drugs manufactured by Emcure and Cipla Pharmaceuticals.

In order to treat children with the proper combinations of drugs at a low cost,

these important fixed dose combination drugs—and any other similar

medications—must be evaluated for their effectiveness and then made available in

all NACO-operated treatment centers. Because of the importance of these drugs

and the need to quickly scale up pediatric treatment, NACO should proactively

solicit applications for regulatory approval from pediatric drug manufacturers.

Finally, NACO and the Ministry of Health have the responsibility to ensure that

adequate numbers of healthcare workers are properly trained in the prevention

and treatment of pediatric HIV/AIDS. The creation of pediatric care guidelines

and the provision of pediatric formulated drugs in government treatment centers

will significantly advance the training of the healthcare workforce.

The world is watching. Please take action now to prevent the continued neglect

of Indian children with HIV/AIDS who urgently need lifesaving treatment and

care.

Sincerely,

" The future depends on what we do in the present. " Gandhi