E-drug: Gertrudes Hospital publishes Paediatric formulary
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Dear E-druggers
Finally, the efforts of the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee at
Gertrudes Garden Children's Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya has borne fruit in
the publication of. a Paediatric formulary and a booklet on
Antiretroviral USe in Children, both of which are the subject of this
regional Newspaper review
Atieno Ojoo
Currently at Boston University School of Public Health, USA
atisojoo@yahoo.co.uk
The Daily Nation |
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Part2
Monday, August 2, 2004
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Gertrude's Hospital Produces Guides on Aids Drugs Use for children
By DAGI KIMANI
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
In a move which anticipates greater access to life-saving
antiretrovirals by children infected with HIV, Kenya's Gertrude's Garden
Children's Hospital has published two guides on the use of the drugs in
paediatrics.
The guides, Paediatric Drug Dosages and Prescribing Guidelines
(170 pages) and the 45-page Antiretroviral Drugs in Paediatrics, are
meant to advise doctors on how to prescribe ARVs to children and
instruct on issues such as dosage, precautions and side-effects.
The guides were prepared by the hospital's Drug and Therapeutics
Committee (DTC), led by the institution's chief pharmacist, Dr Atieno
Ojoo, and printed with funds obtained from Unicef.
Members of the editorial team included Ruth Musoke, a professor
of paediatrics at the University of Nairobi, Prof Bill Lore, a former
editor of The East African Medical Journal, and Prof Colin Forbes, a
paediatrician and trustee at the hospital.
Following the launch of the World Health Organisation's 3-by-5
initiative - which hopes to put three million HIV-infected people in the
developing world under ARV treatment by the end of 2005 - and other
national treatment programmes in East Africa, the number of HIV-infected
children on ARVs in the region is expected to go up substantially in the
next 24 months. UNAids estimates that up to 500,000 children below the
age of 14 years are infected with HIV in East Africa. Over 90 per cent
of the infections are acquired from HIV-positive mothers at birth.
Health experts say that between 15 and 20 per cent of babies
born to such mothers acquire the infection, a figure which rises to 30
per cent if the mother breast-feeds.
A large number of children are also, however, infected in
incidents of sexual abuse.
According to the guides published by Gertrude's, the challenge for
making ARVs available to infected children is particularly urgent
because such children proceed to full-blown disease faster than adults,
with 20 per cent of infected newborns developing Aids within 12 months.
Infected children also have a higher incidence of opportunistic
infections and respond poorly to immunisation.
Children with HIV also suffer the same childhood illnesses as
those without HIV, but in their case the illnesses are more frequent,
likely to last longer, and respond poorly to treatment.
Gertrude's Garden Children's Hospital, which is situated in
Nairobi, is the only specialist children's health facility in the
region.
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Copyright C2003, Nation Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved.
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