(March 7, 2009) Caritas Internationalis wants a better effort to keep children from
dying of AIDS, and says governments and pharmaceutical companies can do more to achieve
the goal. In a recent statement the aid agency launched an appeal for young people
throughout the world to write to governments and pharmaceutical companies through
resources available on its Web site. The organization affirmed that governments and
companies can scale up prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and eliminate the
barriers that exclude women or children from diagnosis and treatment. Francesca Merico,
Caritas Internationalis delegate at the U.N. offices in Geneva, said: "Without adequate
treatment, as many as one third of children born with HIV will die before their first
birthday, and half of them will die before they are two years old. "Pediatric anti-retroviral
treatment for HIV and HIV/TB co-infection in children is not considered to be profitable
as the market for pediatric anti-retroviral care exists mainly in poor countries.”