Abbott Fund To Provide $12M to Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi To Increase Treatment, Care Services for Children Living With HIV/AIDS
The Abbott Fund plans to provide $12 million to Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania to improve treatment and care services for children living with HIV/AIDS and to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission in the three countries, Kenya's East African reports.
According to the East African, the funds allocated to Tanzania will be disbursed to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation for use in its program to prevent mother-to-child transmissions. Kenya's funds will be used by the Catholic Medical Mission Board to expand HIV testing, counseling and treatment and to prevent mother-to-child transmissions. In Malawi, Family Health International will receive the grant, the East African reports.
The programs in the three countries are expected to provide nearly 40,000 pregnant women with HIV tests and more than 5,000 HIV-positive children with treatment, the East African reports (Kimani, East African, 8/14).
Globally, 2.3 million children younger than age 15 were living with HIV in 2005, and 10% of the 780,000 children in need of antiretroviral drugs had access to them during the same time period, according to a report conducted by UNAIDS, UNICEF and the World Health Organization. About one-third of HIV-positive infants who do not have access to treatment die from AIDS-related complications in their first year, and half of them die from AIDS-related complications by age two, the report found (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 1/17). An estimated 300,000 people in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have access to antiretrovirals, less than 20,000 of whom are children. According to James Nyikal, director of medical services in Kenya, 10,000 out of the approximately 50,000 children who need treatment access in the country receive the drugs.
The Abbott Fund has provided more than five million no-cost HIV tests and has distributed more than $100 million to support treatment worldwide. The fund is donating rapid HIV tests to prevent mother-to-child transmissions in 69 countries, including all of Africa, the East African reports (East African, 8/14).