Program Leaders Outline Effective Strategies for Fighting HIV/AIDS in Children in Resource-Limited Settings

TORONTO, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- XVI International AIDS Conference, Toronto, August 13-18, 2006 -- Program leaders from Bristol-Myers Squibb, New York , and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, today outlined innovative medical care, treatment and research and social support strategies to fight HIV/AIDS among infants and children in impoverished areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

Efforts include the arrival of 50 Pediatric AIDS Corps doctors to a network of clinics treating HIV-positive children in sub-Saharan Africa by next Monday; the opening of a program to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV (PMTCT) through a government hospital and 15 feeder clinics in rural Swaziland next month and the opening of two more children's clinics in Uganda and Burkina Faso next year.

At a briefing during the XVI International AIDS Conference, Mark A. Wainberg, O.C., O.Q., PhD., conference co-chair and director of McGill University AIDS Centre, Quebec, described challenges in addressing the special needs of children in the developing world.

"In the last 25 years of the fight against HIV/AIDS, we have seen many contributions by governments, corporations and foundations to bring treatment to people in need. However, as we gather here today, so much more needs to be done," said Wainberg. "We need innovative approaches to treat the most vulnerable populations and also to bring access to treatment to the world's most resource constrained locations. SECURE THE FUTURE(R) is a wonderful model of how both of these goals are attainable."

UNAIDS estimates that 2.3 million children under 15 years of age were living with HIV in 2005. Almost 90% of the world's children living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, where fewer than 10% are being reached by basic support services.

An initiative of Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, SECURE THE FUTURE has been working on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa since 1999 - in partnership with government Ministries of Health, medical institutions, NGOs and other organizations - to create comprehensive approaches to fight HIV/AIDS.

Many programs have been dedicated to creating sustainable, replicable model programs for children, including a network of Children's HIV/AIDS Clinical Centers of Excellence operated by the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative; co-funding with Baylor the Pediatric AIDS Corps to send 250 doctors to Africa over the next five years to treat an estimated 80,000 children and train local health care personnel; and operating a Community- Based Treatment Support center focused on PMTCT.

Additional projects supporting children include education, psychosocial care and support for orphans and vulnerable children, training, food security and income-generating projects for caregivers; and community mobilizations to reduce stigma and foster testing.

Because of the extreme burden of disease in this region and a limited ability to pay for HIV medicines, Bristol-Myers Squibb substantially lowered the price of its medications to a level that delivers no profit to the company in 2001. In July 2005 the Company further reduced the price of pediatric formulations to significantly below cost to accelerate access to treatment for the millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa. The company also pledged that its patents would not stand in the way of inexpensive HIV/AIDS therapy being made available in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Innovative strategies will be necessary to scale up the care and treatment of hundreds of thousands of HIV-infected children and families across sub-Saharan Africa. We believe that the Children's Clinical Centers of Excellence and Pediatric AIDS Corps will transform pediatric and family HIV/AIDS care in some of the world's hardest hit countries," said Mark Kline, M.D., president of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, professor of pediatrics and chief of Retrovirology, Baylor College of Medicine. Kline announced that 50 Pediatric AIDS Corps physicians will arrive in Africa by August 21 to begin one-year assignments to treat children and train healthcare professionals. They will be based at children's clinical centers in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Uganda and Burkina Faso and serve at the centers and in nearby rural areas as part of the $32 million SECURE THE FUTURE and Baylor program to send up to 250 doctors to Africa through 2010.

Funding for construction of the centers in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland was provided through Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation grants. Additional pediatric AIDS centers funded by the initiative will be opened in Burkina Faso and Uganda next year, and funds have been committed to build another two centers.

Sebastian Wanless, M.B., Ch.B., PhD., senior medical director, SECURE THE FUTURE, pointed to a related effort in Swaziland where a prevalence rate of 33.4% was reported by UNAIDS in 2005. "We have successfully linked a community-based treatment support program dedicated to preventing mother-to- child-transmission of HIV with a pediatric HIV/AIDS clinical center to provide a coordinated continuum of care from pre-natal testing, through delivery to pediatric care."

The program begins at the Pilot Operational Research and Community-Based Program (PORECO) established by SECURE THE FUTURE in Mbabane, Swaziland, to provide PMTCT-Plus. Services include a clinic providing highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) when required, voluntary counseling and testing, and social services such as home visits, infant feeding counseling, nutrition and food security. This program is coordinated at the Baylor- Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Clinical Center of Excellence - Swaziland, which opened in Mbabane in February 2006.

To further extend services aimed at reducing the new infection rate in infants, 10 Pediatric AIDS Corps physicians will be based at the clinical center in Mbabane and begin serving clinics in the area next month, according to Wanless. The PORECO Project will be replicated beginning next month at the Piggs Peak Government Hospital in Piggs Peak, Swaziland, and its 15 associated clinics in the rural northern Hhohho area.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation have committed $150 million to the initiative which includes medical care and research, community outreach and education and new infrastructure. Programs funded include public education aimed at prevention, training for physicians and other public health workers, home-based care strategies, interventions to aid orphans and other vulnerable children, clinical research and medical care.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global pharmaceutical and related health care products company whose mission is to extend and enhance human life.