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MALAWI: International organisations bring relief to HIV-positive children

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 10 March (PLUSNEWS) - The Abbott Fund, an extension of multinational drug firm Abbott Laboratory, and the US-based Baylor College of Medicine, have announced plans to assist children living with HIV and AIDS in Malawi through the establishment of a paediatric clinic on the Kamuzu Central Hospital campus, in the capital Lilongwe.

Modelled after Baylor's first stand-alone paediatric AIDS clinic in Constanta, Romania, the centre will be staffed collaboratively by Baylor and local health professionals, and funded by a three-year US $1.5 million grant for construction and ongoing operations through Abbot's 'Step Forward' programme.

"Abbott Fund and Baylor have pioneered a model in Romania that is now being successfully replicated throughout the developing world and will be instrumental to scaling up treatment and care for children with HIV," said Dr Mark W. Kline, director of the Baylor International Paediatric AIDS Initiative.

Although paediatric HIV/AIDS treatment in the developing world is a relatively new field, Kline was hopeful that similar results to the Romania initiative could be achieved with a commitment from the Malawi government.

UNAIDS estimates that more than 14 percent of Malawi's one million people are living with HIV/AIDS, while one in four HIV-positive children die before the age of five - one of the highest death rates in the world.

With more than 65 percent of the population living in abject poverty, Malawi also has very limited resources to tackle the pandemic.

Doctor Peter Kazembe, director of the new clinic, said the government "currently does not have the capabilities to manage the growing number of HIV-positive children at the existing paediatric clinic in the capital".

Construction will begin in April, and the clinic is expected to be fully operational by December 2005.

[ENDS]