Two UN agencies are exploring ways to resolve the lack of anti-AIDS medication for children in Africa, a senior UN official said on Monday.
The UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, told delegates at a conference on infected orphans in Barcelona, Spain, that the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) had joined forces to address the scarcity of child-friendly AIDS formulas.
Lewis said in a statement: "It's estimated that if we started immediately, we could get certain paediatric formulations onto the market within 18 months."
However, he expressed concern that the estimated 2.2 million children already living with HIV/AIDS worldwide were likely to lose the race against time.
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