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Abbott Fund's Step Forward program provides grants and product to address pediatric HIV/AIDS in the developing world
Abbott Laboratories is partnering with the Baylor College of Medicine and the Government of Malawi to establish Malawi's first clinic dedicated to providing care and treatment for children with HIV/AIDS.
According to UNAIDS, Malawi has an HIV prevalence rate of more than 14 percent, and it's estimated that almost 1 million people in Malawi are living with HIV/AIDS. One in four HIV–infected children dies before the age of 5 – one of the highest death rates in the world. With more than 65 percent of the population living in poverty, the country has very limited resources to fight the disease.
The clinic is being funded by a three–year, $1.5 million grant for construction and ongoing operations from the Abbott Fund's Step Forward program, which to date has provided more than $12 million in grants and donated product to Baylor initiatives aimed at advancing programs, knowledge and health professional training to address pediatric HIV/AIDS in the developing world. Construction of the clinic should be completed by December 2005.
The Malawi center will be modeled after the Romanian–American Children's Center, the first stand–alone pediatric AIDS clinic in the developing world. Through an innovative approach to treatment at this pediatric center, children are provided with state-of-the-art medical treatment, including antiretroviral therapy. A comprehensive program of support also is provided for children and their families, including psychosocial counseling, support groups, and awareness and prevention education. This model program has reduced pediatric AIDS mortality by more than 90 percent in four years in Constanta, Romania, the epicenter of pediatric HIV in Eastern Europe.
"In only a few years, the Baylor model of pediatric treatment has expanded from one clinic in Romania to six additional pediatric centers operating in countries throughout Africa," said Jeff Richardson, executive director of the Abbott Fund's Step Forward program. "Through the Baylor Network, local-country health professionals and Baylor staff now have the opportunity to interact and discuss global and local-country advances in pediatric care, and to work together to further advance the scale-up of pediatric treatment programs around the world."
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