Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

UGANDA: New centre to boost paediatric HIV care
10 Oct 2008 15:37:49 GMT
Source: IRIN
KAMPALA, 10 October 2008 (IRIN) - Children living with HIV in Uganda have been given greater access to treatment with a new paediatric HIV care centre opened at the main referral hospital in the capital, Kampala.

More than 20,000 children are infected with HIV every year, and 50 percent of them die before their second birthday.

"There is still inadequate access to paediatric HIV care and treatment services in Uganda," the executive director of the centre, Dr Addy Kekitiinwa, said at the opening. "Out of the 330 active antiretroviral (ARV) therapy centres in Uganda, only 110 are able to provide paediatric HIV care services, and most of these are located in urban centres."

The centre at Mulago Hospital – supported by the Baylor International Paediatric AIDS Initiative (http://bayloraids.org/) - is the first to provide a comprehensive package of HIV care and treatment services for children and adolescents infected or exposed to HIV, including testing, treatment, counselling of children and their families, and training healthcare professionals in the management of paediatric HIV.

"Children born of HIV-positive mothers whose status is not known, or those that are HIV-positive but still breastfeeding, are the main beneficiaries of this centre," said Dr Vincent Bagambe, publicity secretary of Baylor-Uganda.

"Everybody is free to come for HIV testing - all children who test HIV-positive will be enrolled into the clinic for chronic care, and HIV-positive parents who have children in the clinic will be given an opportunity to enrol if they wish."

Baylor has operated in Uganda since 2003, when it set up a paediatric infectious diseases clinic at Mulago hospital; today, more than 7,500 children and caregivers receive HIV/AIDS care and are routinely followed up.

The new clinic, costing an estimated US$680,000, was funded by the United States Centres for Disease Control, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and global pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, among others.

Baylor-Uganda supports 44 ARV treatment centres around the country, mostly in district hospitals and clinics.

Uganda has an estimated 100,000 people on ARVs, but only 10,000 of them are children.

en/kr/he

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org


AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Children

MORE >>

Emergencies

•  AIDS in Africa

•  AIDS pandemic

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Armenia: 20 Years On and 22,000 children and their families advocated for
World Vision MEERO - Cyprus

•  TV NEWS FOOTAGE Pakistan: Thousands flee conflict areas as fighting intensifies in North-West
ICRC - Switzerland

•  School supplies: New hope for vulnerable children
World Vision MEERO - Cyprus

•  Relief efforts increased for upcoming Winter in Georgia
World Vision MEERO - Cyprus

•  LRA violence continues to displace and traumatise increasingly desperate Dungu residents
Medair - Switzerland

MORE >>

Latest news

•  UGANDA: New centre to boost paediatric HIV care

•  DRC-RWANDA: Fighting flares as civilians run in eastern Congo

•  U.N. says will work to prevent Congo-Rwanda war

•  AFRICA: 'Sexually-transmitted grades' kills quality education

•  UGANDA: Children eke out a living on the streets

MORE >>
IRIN news

Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-10-10T144940Z_01_ISL11_RTRIDSP_2_PAKISTAN-CRASH_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/ISL11.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-10-10T144758Z_01_ISL009_RTRIDSP_2_PAKISTAN-CRASH_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/ISL009.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-10-10T144502Z_01_ISL09_RTRIDSP_2_PAKISTAN-CRASH_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/ISL09.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-10-10T144154Z_01_ISL08_RTRIDSP_2_PAKISTAN-CRASH_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/ISL08.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-10-10T144017Z_01_ISL07_RTRIDSP_2_PAKISTAN-CRASH_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/ISL07.htm

Security officials examine the wreckage of a bus after it crashed into a truck near Pakistan's central town of Lodhran, some 100 km (62 miles) southwest from Multan, October 10, 2008. ...



Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Fri Oct 10 15:39:04 2008