In the wake of International AIDS Day, the Executive Director of the Children and HIV in Africa (EVA) network, Dr. Geres Ahognon, on December 2, edified the journalists who are members of the African Media Network for the Promotion of Health and the environment (Remapsen) on the situation of pediatric HIV in Central and Central Africa.
During a webinar where more than 20 journalists from the continent were connected, he indicated that pediatric HIV is specific. First by its weak indicators. ”You have barely 35% screened, 35% on treatment and 27% who have suppressed viral load, proof that there is either a problem with the drug or that it is not effective or is badly taken. ” Another thing that Dr. Ahognon deplores is the mixture of all children in pediatric HIV: early childhood, older children, and adolescents, while they do not have the same problems. -he. ”HIV in children is complex.” Its management, for example. ”Children’s medicines are still multiple pills, which may lead to rejection from them. Likewise, you have to weigh them, look at their height, because they have to take their medication according to their weight and height, variables that do not exist in adults.
We therefore need strong commitments to provide the appropriate solutions, he says to all the actors involved in the fight. But there are not only specificities in pediatric HIV. There are also all the difficulties that surround this problem and which are a brake in the march towards its eradication. Thus, concentrated on giving voice to the cause of adults, the associations leave children stranded. Same thing for adults who, not having finished with their own problems, forget a little about those of children. “This means, for example, that when there is a lack of ARVs for adults, everyone is alerted, but on the child side, there is radio silence!”
Another difficulty, lists Dr. Ahognon: the availability of resources. So to change the situation, the Eva network has had a few projects in place since 2019 to organize adolescents and young people into associations so that their voices are heard. But beyond that, only the success of prevention will make it possible to avoid new contamination. ”Also, our efforts are concentrated on the follow-up of HIV-positive pregnant women.”
Line R. ALOMO
Libreville/Gabon