South African Experts Welcome New HIV Treatments for Children

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has approved new child-friendly formulations of several important antiretroviral medicines, Thabo Molelekwa of Spotlight reports. The approvals promise to make life easier for children living with HIV in South Africa but it will take a while before all children have access to the new medicines.

Around 238 000 children (aged younger than 15) were living with HIV in South Africa in 2021, according to outputs from Thembisa, the leading mathematical model of HIV in South Africa. In 2021, an estimated 82% of children living with HIV had been diagnosed, 69.1% of those diagnosed were on treatment and the virus was suppressed in the bodies of only 39% of all children living with HIV. These numbers are substantially worse than the equivalent numbers for everyone living with HIV in South Africa combined - 93.7%, 73.8%, and 63%.

One factor contributing to the poor treatment coverage and viral suppression rates in children is that most of the available medicines are not tailored to the needs of children. Often the medicines come as large pills that are hard to swallow or taste bad. Some also require refrigeration.