AIDS conference calls for child-specific HIV drugs

The world's biggest AIDS conference closed on Wednesday with a call for the development of child-specific drugs to ensure millions of HIV-infected children not only survive to adulthood, but also live without damaging side effects from their treatment. "We must do more to protect our future, finding better ways to treat the youngest among us...," said International AIDS Society (IAS) President Dr Pedro Cahn.

An estimated 2.3 million children are HIV infected, with around 600,000 new infections each year. Without treatment half of all babies infected will die before their second birthday. Yet only 15 percent of children who need treatment are currently receiving antiretroviral drugs, the IAS conference in Sydney was told on Wednesday.

"The goal of treatment in children must be balanced between halting the effects of the HIV disease and the long-term effects of antiretroviral on a developing child," said Dr Annette Sohn from the Division of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of California in San Francisco.

Sohn said HIV-infected children on antiretrovirals risk HIV encephalopathy, where the brain swells and damages tissues over time, reduced neurocognitive development and lower bone density.

The conference was told that early treatment of children increased survival rates, but Sohn said some children who have been on early treatment have been forced onto second and third line drugs as the virus quickly builds resistance.

"It's clear that response to treatment is better when children are started before they develop severe immune deficiency," she said. "What is the future for those children already on second line drugs at the age of 5?"