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US drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) said on Wednesday it would deploy 50 paediatric doctors to sub-Saharan Africa each year for the next five years as part of efforts to treat HIV-positive children.
The announcement followed concerns raised by former US President Bill Clinton during the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada, over children falling through the cracks when it came to the availability of child-friendly anti-AIDS drugs in developing countries.
According to a BMS statement, doctors will start arriving next Monday to kick off the first phase of the campaign, which covers prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. They will be based at children's clinical centres in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Uganda and Burkina Faso.
UNAIDS estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 90 percent of the 2.3 million children living with the HI virus globally, but fewer than 10 percent are being reached by basic anti-AIDS care services.
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