Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS

Together with key partners, including selected African advocacy organizations and networks, the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, and UNICEF, the Global AIDS Alliance has launched a three-year Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS (CEPA) that focuses on overcoming policy and implementation bottlenecks to scaling up prevention of parent-to-child transmission (PPTCT+) and pediatric diagnosis, treatment, and care programs in six focus countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria, and Mozambique.

RECENT UPDATES:

Uganda: Early Diagnosis of AIDS Still Elusive
Media from the Kenya CEPA Launch 
CEPA Job Opening: Africa Coordinator 
CEPA Update and Progress Report December 2009 
Media Clips from CEPA Summit (PDF)
Multimedia from CEPA Summit 

Please follow these links to learn more:

Scope of the Problem
CEPA's Core Objectives
CEPA Campaign Network
Overcoming Key Bottlenecks
Concrete Outcomes
Voices from Africa
Contact Information
Background Documents

Scope of the Problem

Despite international commitments to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS services by 2010, including 80% coverage for prevention of parent-to-child transmission services, progress toward these goals remains too slow, and pediatric HIV transmission remains unacceptably high, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

  • An estimated 370,000 children were infected with HIV in 2007 alone, approximately 17% of all new infections, primarily because pregnant, HIV-positive women lack access to PPTCT+ services.
  • Of the nearly 3 million people on treatment globally, only 200,000, or 6.7%, are children.
  • Only one in seven (14%) of the 780,000 children in need of ART are receiving it.
  • Of the 2 million children under age 15 with HIV/AIDS worldwide, 1.8 million reside in sub-Saharan Africa.

CEPA's Core Objectives

The Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS will work to advance the following objectives:

  1. Family-Centered Care and Nutrition. Expand access to PPTCT+ and pediatric treatment, care, and support, including nutrition services, and integrate child and family services with other health services in order to improve survival rates and health outcomes for children, HIV-positive mothers, and their families.
  2. Early Infant Diagnosis and Treatment. Expand access to early infant diagnosis and earlier and improved pediatric treatment in order to improve survival rates and health outcomes for children.
  3. Access to Appropriate Medications. Reduce distribution barriers and increase the global supply of high-quality, low-cost lifesaving medicines for children and their families, including ARVs, drugs to treat opportunistic infections, and first and second-line regimens to ease dosing and administration.
  4. Full Funding to Eliminate Pediatric AIDS. Secure the financial resources needed to facilitate country-level scale-up of PPTCT+ and pediatric and maternal treatment programs.

CEPA Campaign Network

The Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS intends to support national-level models for effective advocacy, and is being designed and implemented in partnership with African civil-society organizations and networks that can provide country-specific expertise to address diverse social, economic, cultural, and political contexts. Ultimately, CEPA will help build an advocacy network that can help ensure ongoing monitoring and accountability as prevention and treatment programs are scaled up at the national level across Africa. In doing so, the campaign will advance an advocacy model that can be implemented in other countries-and potentially replicated in other regions worldwide.

Overcoming Key Bottlenecks

CEPA's partners have identified two major types of bottlenecks that must be addressed in order to ensure that PPTCT+ and pediatric HIV/AIDS programs are scaled up successfully:

  1. Implementation bottlenecks, such as inadequate health care worker training; lack of or insufficient transportation systems for health care commodities; problems with procurement and supply chain management; and inadequate adoption of international and national guidelines for PPTCT+ and pediatric treatment.
  2. Policy bottlenecks, such as lack of long-term predictable financing; over-reliance on external funding for antiretroviral medications (ARVs); funding shortfalls and bottlenecks in disbursement from both domestic and international sources; limitations on task-shifting to trained non-physician clinicians; and the lack of or unclear national policies and targets for scaling up access to pediatric HIV/AIDS services.

Concrete Outcomes

CEPA's advocacy efforts are expected to leverage the following large-scale, sustainable impacts to improve the lives of children:

  • World Health Organization guidelines endorsing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) as best practice for PPTCT are understood and implemented by key policymakers and service providers.
  • Early initiation of diagnosis and treatment for all HIV-exposed infants and children, including administration of cotrimoxazole.
  • Allocation of appropriate percentage of total HIV/AIDS resources to achieve 80% coverage rates for PPTCT+ and pediatric treatment and ensure high-quality services.
  • Nutrition funded as key component of pediatric treatment, including micronutrients.
  • New fixed dose combination drugs registered for use in focus countries.
  • Increased task-shifting to allow trained non-physician clinicians to initiate PPTCT and pediatric treatment.
  • Improved monitoring and capacity building of both local and global programs to ensure effective implementation of PPTCT+ and pediatric diagnosis and treatment guidelines.

Voices from Africa

Community Statement at International AIDS Society 2009 Pathogenesis Conference, Cape Town

Contact Information

To learn more about the Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS, please contact Georgina Bukenya, CEPA Policy Officer, at gbukenya@globalaidsalliance.org or +1.202.789.0432 x202.

To join our new CEPA listserve, please send an email to End-Pediatric-AIDS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Background Documents

CEPA Fact Sheet
September 2009 CEPA Progress Report
CEPA Strategic Plan, 2009-2012
On the Road to Developing a CEPA National-Level Advocacy Action Plan
Empowering Health Workers with New Technologies to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS
Global Strategy to Eliminate HIV Infection in Infants and Young Children (AIDS 2009)
CEPA Country Partners Kickoff Meeting Documents
CEPA Press Coverage 
CEPA Press Kit 
Blog from CEPA Summit  
Presentations from CEPA Summit
Materials for the October 20-22 CEPA Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa 

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