Children with HIV/AIDS

Story: Albert K. Salia
A total of 21,282 children under the age of 14 are living with HIV/AIDS as of June this year.
Out of the number, about 95 per cent acquired the virus from their mothers with 4,461 needing anti-retroviral therapy (ART).
Out of the 4,461 needing ART, 40 per cent of them are under 18 months of age.
Less than four per cent of all people on ART in Ghana are children below 14 years of age.
A Consultant Paediatrician , Dr Lorna Renner of the Child Health Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that “it is known that children progress rapidly with 33 per cent before age one, 50 per cent before age two and 60 per cent by age three if they do not have access to comprehensive care”.
According to her, transmission rates from an infected mother to the child without intervention were estimated at 30 to 40 per cent.
Dr Renner said evidence on the benefit of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) showed it could reduce transmission by at least 50 per cent by screening and using simple prophylactic therapies.
She said weak PMTCT programmes also directly adversely affected maternal health and child survival.
She appealed to pregnant women to test their HIV status to facilitate their early treatment to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to the child.
“Without treatment, about 30 to 40 per cent of infected mothers would have children with HIV. But with treatment, you can cut the risk from below 15 per cent to two per cent depending on the drugs given,” she said.
Dr Renner said there were 403 centres nationwide which offered PMTCT services and appealed to pregnant women to take advantage of the services so as to give birth to healthy children.
She explained that after delivery, trained personnel follow up on the status of the children to provide appropriate treatment to the newly born in case they were born infected.
She said apart from the drugs, other ways pregnant women could reduce the transmission to their babies was through good ante-natal and post delivery care.
Dr Renner said a major challenge confronting the PMTCT programme was diagnosing of the pregnant women, as most of them did not want to be tested.
She said another challenge was the provision of tablets of smaller strength for children as the existing tablets were for adults.
She said a mother infected with HIV could breastfeed the child but it should be exclusive breast milk for six months before the child was put on replacement feeds.
“In providing care for HIV infected children, we must remember that young children have immature immune systems and are susceptible to common infections, as well as opportunistic infections,” she said.
According to her, comprehensive care for paediatric HIV/AIDS was lagging behind the scale of need, stressing that “we have to act now to stop the HIV pandemic from reversing gains in child survival”.
“We need easily preventive care services, family centred comprehensive care, optimising entry points for children with access to early diagnosis and strengthened linkages to supportive services, as the child’s health is dependent on that of other family members, as well as society as a whole,” she added, saying that “together we should all work towards an HIV-free generation in Ghana”.