The Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria offers developing countries the opportunity to implement comprehensive plans to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS. To encourage countries to secure Global Fund grants to support programs for the treatment and prevention of pediatric HIV/AIDS, the Global AIDS Alliance has compiled a new Global Fund Round 6 Pediatric Treatment and Prevention Toolkit.

As the epidemic has grown, most treatment and prevention programs have neglected the needs of HIV-positive children and the children of HIV-positive mothers. There are currently 2.3 million children living with HIV/AIDS, and 570,000 children died of AIDS-related diseases in 2005. But the Global Fund's support for programs to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in children is not nearly proportional to the scope of the pediatric AIDS epidemic; only five proposals that specifically mention pediatric treatment received funding during the first five rounds of Global Fund grants.

While children account for 17% of global AIDS deaths, they make up only 6% of those currently receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. In July 2005, GAA published an advocacy brief that provided the framework for a new "Treat the Children" advocacy campaign that seeks to ensure that 15% of all ARV treatment services are delivered to children 15 years of age and younger. Increased Global Fund investments in pediatric treatment and prevention programs will be essential to meeting this goal.

The new Pediatric Treatment and Prevention Toolkit demonstrates the international community's commitment to scaling up programs for children affected by HIV/AIDS. The toolkit contains documents developed by organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF that outline medically accepted algorithms for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of children with HIV/AIDS and are intended to aid governments in training healthcare workers in pediatrics. The toolkit also details what drugs are available at which doses and offers tools for anticipating demand in order to facilitate effective drug procurement. Finally, there are documents to assist countries in submitting pediatric treatment grant proposals to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

The toolkit contains the following documents:

Pediatric Prevention, Treatment, and Care Documents

1. WHO's "Antiretroviral therapy of HIV infection in infants and children in resource-limited settings"
   
2. UNICEF's "Pediatric Care Consultation"
   
3. African Network for the Care of Children Affected by AIDS' Handbook on Pediatric AIDS in Africa

Procurement Documents

Global Fund Grant Writing Documents

• A mock pediatric treatment and prevention grant proposal prepared by WHO
  
• Aidspan's Guide to Developing Global Fund Proposals to Benefit Children Affected by HIV/AIDS

You can request a copy of WHO's "Antiretroviral therapy of HIV infection in infants and children in resource-limited settings" guidelines by email