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Kampala – Parents will soon find it easier to give antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to children under 10 because scientists have begun to develop a drug that can be soluble in porridge and other liquids. This is intended to encourage good adherence and suppression of viral load.
The study, which is still in the design stage, comes one year after the government had enrolled the same class of children on sugar-coated drugs in the form of pellets, which the guards could sprinkle with food for children.
Dr. Joshua Musinguzi, HIV / AIDS Program Manager at the Ministry of Health, said the new formulations would be in the form of granules that can be powdered to facilitate their swallowing compared to larger granules.
Justification
"Children are suffering because they are taking different drug formulations," Dr. Musinguzi said during a telephone interview yesterday.
Currently, said Dr. Musinguzi, children born with HIV are exposed to ARVs as bitter syrup, after which they are introduced to pellets at the age of three months.
Children then go on to tablets at the age of 10 years and older, which makes adhesion very difficult, resulting in a reduction in viral load.
The new formulation is also expected in a fixed-dose combination of four drugs, unlike pellets, which contain only two.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that although the removal of viral load at undetectable levels among adults living with HIV / AIDS in the country has increased by more than 80%, it remains lower among children under 6 years of age. aged 15, about 60%.
The study, scheduled for launch early next year, is funded by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases (DNDi) initiative, a non-profit organization for drug research and development that is developing new treatments. especially for neglected diseases.
Dr. Olawale Salami, DNDi's HIV Clinical HIV Project Leader, said pediatric patients had been neglected for a long time, which hampered the fight against HIV.
"To the extent that mother-to-child transmission has decreased dramatically in the world, infected children have been left out, they can not swallow existing medicines and that is why it is important to find the formulation", said Dr. Salami at an international conference. for the researchers at Speke Resort Munyonyo last week.
A total of 93,679 children under the age of 14 currently live with HIV / AIDS in Uganda.
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