Monaco is committed to children living with HIV
The figures are striking: in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 800,000 children living with HIV do not receive any treatment. A situation like a sentence: without treatment, half of the children born with HIV do not reach the age of two. It is for this forgotten segment of the population – estimated at 50% of children living with HIV in the world – that DNDi is committed.
The acronym for Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative means in French Initiative Medicines against Neglected Diseases. The NGO was created in Switzerland in 2003, headed by Bernard Pecoul, the former director general of Doctors Without Borders.
Their niche? Providing innovative treatments for neglected diseases. And in the case of HIV, they are now counting on the support of the Principality, which has chosen to side with them.
The partnership signed with the management of the Monegasque International Cooperation translates into a commitment of 300,000 euros over three years to allow young children with HIV – particularly from Senegal and South Africa – access to optimal treatments. to their age and their needs.
“The most vulnerable as the core target”
“For too long, children living with HIV have been disadvantaged, especially those living in resource-limited settings. Today, we are witnessing a revolution in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric HIV. our responsibility to ensure that children living with HIV have access to these new diagnoses and treatments which represent a major advance” declared Bernard Pécoul, executive director of DNDi at the announcement of this partnership.
A rapprochement “which is in line with the priorities of the Monegasque Cooperation, with the most vulnerable as the core target and we will show that advances in terms of HIV diagnosis and treatment will soon benefit as many people as possible, so as not to leave anyone behind”underlined Bénédicte Schutz, who heads International Cooperation.
South Africa and Senegal are among the partner countries of the Monegasque Cooperation, where projects of various kinds are engaged. And the issue of HIV is dominant in both states.
South Africa has the highest number of children living with HIV (310,000) and only 47% have received antiretroviral treatment which prevents the virus from multiplying in the blood and helps to overcome infections.
Today, DNDi supports the registration by the country’s regulatory authorities of an innovative treatment with masked taste because the drugs currently available have a bitter taste that makes their administration very difficult in children.
In Senegal, of the 4,000 children named as HIV carriers, only a third have access to antiretroviral treatment.
Questions to Dr Florent Mbo, researcher for DNDi in Kinshasa, Congo
The treatment allows them to lead an almost normal life
A researcher who works for DNDi from Kinshasa in the Congo, Dr. Florent Mbo is in charge of issues of access to drugs and pleads for a wider distribution of antiretroviral treatments.
Effective access to treatment must start with screening?
Indeed, we cannot speak of access to treatment without prior screening. In the African context, there is not enough access to resources at the level of our governments to support HIV testing. First, for example, pregnant women who give birth to HIV-infected children must be tested.
We have examples in South Africa where a very high number of pregnant women carry HIV and pass it on to their child during childbirth. This is why we support the training of health professionals on these screening issues. And a screened child, from his first months of life, can have access to treatment.
In Europe, we sometimes forget that AIDS is a disease that kills. For young children, an effective treatment gives what hopes to their life course?
It clearly improves the life of children who follow it in the long term. They can go to school to study, their antibodies are strengthened and the treatment allows them to lead an almost normal life. By receiving the treatment early, it helps to avoid frequent infections. We treat three-month-old babies, for example. What is also important is to know if the mother is HIV-positive in order to give her treatment beforehand, during her pregnancy and to reduce the risk of transmission during childbirth.
Does the supply of treatment in certain countries come up against logistical constraints?
For the moment, the logistical problem does not arise so much. Our concern is the availability of the drug. At DNDi, we do everything to adapt our formulations taking into account the climatic context. Also, we often favor drugs that are thermostable and fail to be stored in the refrigerator. In our most remote health centers in rural areas, there is no cold chain. Medications must be adapted to the field context.
Do you sometimes notice fears, challenges on the part of the people to whom you offer these treatments?
I have just returned from a field visit to the north of Kinshasa, we arrived in structures where the children who are brought, contaminated by mothers with HIV, do not have medication. These children are doomed for lack of care and our desire is to fill this void around pediatric HIV. This brings smiles back to these populations. And Monaco’s support for these programs contributes to this.