MEDIA RELEASE
December 1, 2009.
Caritas calls on Pharmaceutical Company
to have a ‘HAART’ this World
AIDS Day
Caritas Australia is calling on the pharmaceutical company Roche to refocus attention to developing
paediatric HIV medications this World AIDS Day. In the twentieth Anniversary year of the Convention of
the Rights of the Child Caritas has launched the international campaign “HAART for Children: greater
Access to Paediatric HIV and TB testing and treatment.”
Caritas Australia CEO
Jack De Groot said Roche had a particular responsibility as one of the largest
pharmaceutical companies in the world to take action to protect the rights of some of the most
vulnerable people, children living with HIV.
“In the last year more than 292,000 children died of diseases related to HIV – that is 800 children every
single day. Despite much talk and action on HIV, the needs of children are still neglected,” said Caritas
CEO Jack de Groot.
“A major issue is the lack of child-friendly fixed dose combinations of anti-retroviral drugs. In many
developing countries care-givers have to use tablets designed for adults and break them up. Whilst
there are some syrups available, they are difficult to handle, costly to transport and hard to store
without refrigeration. In addition anti-retroviral treatment for children is currently three times more
expensive than adult formulations.”
Caritas Australia
allocates 14 percent of its international Programs' budget to HIV activities and
is
committed to a holistic response that targets the medical, cultural, ethical and social dimensions of the
illness.
Thabisile, 37, from Swaziland illustrates the importance of this multi-faceted
approach. “I went to get
tested for HIV because two of my children had died,” she says.
Her third child died – even though he was getting treatment – as well as her husband. She now lives
with her 12 year old daughter in an isolated region where food and water are both scarce.
While the local hospital provides anti-retrovirals,
Thabisile must first walk 5 km to reach the bus stop
where a return ticket will cost her 30 Rand (or AUD4.50). If she cannot afford the ticket she will miss
her monthly treatment, limiting the ARV’s effectiveness.
Similarly Dumsile, 32, also from Swaziland shows how HIV compounds those already struggling with
poverty. When she was pregnant she took medication to stop her passing HIV on to her son however
he ended up HIV positive.
“I breastfed him,” Dumsile explains. “I knew he could get HIV because of that, but I didn’t have any food
to give him, so I didn’t have a choice.”
To participate in the “HAART for Children” and support women like Thabisile, Dumsile and their
NB. HAART stands for Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART), the term given to treatment regimes to aggressively suppress viral
replication and slow the progress of HIV disease.
More information Evan Ellis 02) 8306 3457 or 0408 869 833
The Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development
28-32 O’Riordan St, Alexandria, NSW, Australia, 2015 Toll Free 1800 024 413 Facsimile 1800 887 895
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