UNITAID / AFRICA HIV PAEDRIATIC MEDICINES

STORY: UNITAID / AFRICA HIV PAEDRIATIC MEDICINES
TRT: 04:00
SOURCE: UNITAID
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

DATELINE: 11-12 MAY 2022, NAIROBI, KENYA

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, exterior, Nyumbani’s Children Home, Karen, Nairobi, Kenya
2. Close up, a nurse takes dolutegravir (DTG) tablets from a bottle, then puts them on a tray.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jackson Hungu, Programme Manager, Unitaid:
“Unitaid has been involved in paediatric HIV since its creation in 2006, from the scale-up of early infant diagnosis of HIV, which means the introduction of DNA PCR testing for children, to identify children [who are HIV positive]. It has also been involved in the development of paediatric drugs, reformulating new drugs over the last 15 years.”
4. Various shots, a woman and her baby are undergoing a consultation at Edarp Donholm Clinic (Embakasi East, Nairobi, Kenya). A nurse pricks the finger of the baby and analyses the baby’s blood to test whether it is HIV positive.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jackson Hungu, Programme Manager, Unitaid:
“Children by their very nature grow very quickly and treatments need to be adapted for them. They need to be easy to consume. Now, Unitaid is perhaps the only global agency focused on ensuring that we can have these new treatments – the newest treatments adapted for children, as early as possible, and not just on the market side, but also [relative to] the scale-up in countries, working with governments.”
6. Wide shots, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi, Kenya
7. Various shots, Medical personnel are testing blood vials at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi, Kenya.
8. Wide shot, Nurse Caroline Barete, Clinical Officer at Lea Toto’s Medical Clinic in Kibera, Nairobi, consults with a man in the lobby.
9. Various shots, Nurse Caroline Barete, Clinical Officer at Lea Toto’s Medical Clinic in Kibera, Nairobi, consults with a woman and her child in her office.
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Caroline Barete, Clinical Officer at Lea Toto’s Medical Clinic in Kibera, Nairobi:
“There's a big difference between giving the children the [old treatment] lopinavir/ritonavir tablet or syrup, compared to the dolutegravir tablets (DTG 10mg). Before, the children had to take it twice a day. With lopinavir/ritonavir, they had to take it in the morning and in the evening. The syrup was not palatable, it was bitter. The taste would remain for several hours, but with [dolutegravir (DTG)], they only need to take it once a day. It's not as bitter, it's very sweet.”
11. Wide shots, children playing outside in a playground at Nyumbani’s Children Home, Karen, Nairobi, Kenya.

STORYLINE:

The global health agency Unitaid celebrates its 15-year anniversary during the World Health Assembly (22-28 of May) 2022.

On the African continent, Kenya has been one of the quickest countries to introduce and scale-up first-in-class lifesaving technologies for HIV.

In this country, where nearly 1.4 million people including more than 80,000 children are living with HIV, active steps have been taken over the past 15 years to facilitate the introduction of and access to advanced medical technologies at affordable prices, making it possible to roll back the epidemic.

This is particularly the case for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs adapted to children, a large and particularly fragile population, but for which few drug manufacturers are investing. 15 years ago, Unitaid started to work on the optimization of paediatric HIV treatments from separate and bulky syrups to combined fixed dose dispersible tablets to support accelerated scale-up of paediatric HIV treatment.

In what has been a long journey of paediatric HIV treatment optimization, Kenya was one of the first 6 African countries where the first child friendly, dispersible version of the HIV drug dolutegravir 10mg (DTG 10mg) hit the ground at the end of 2021.

This game-changing drug is now available at an affordable cost following an agreement between Unitaid and generic manufacturers Viatris and Macleods announced on December 2020 which saw the price for paediatric HIV treatment reduced by 75 percent, reaching an annual cost of $36 per child, down from about $400.

Jackson Hungu, Programme Manager, Unitaid: “Children by their very nature grow very quickly and treatments need to be adapted for them. They need to be easy to consume. Now, Unitaid is perhaps the only global agency focused on ensuring that we can have these new treatments – the newest treatments adapted for children, as early as possible, and not just on the market side, but also relative to the scale-up in countries, working with governments.”

Caroline Barete, Clinical Officer at Lea Toto’s Medical Clinic in Kibera, Nairobi: “There is a big difference between the old treatment lopinavir/ritonavir tablet or syrup, compared to dolutegravir tablets 10mg. Before, children had to take it twice a day, in the morning and the evening. The syrup was not palatable, it was bitter, and the taste would remain for several hours. With DTG, they only need to take it once a day and it’s very sweet. Then, there is the bulk […]. The dolutegravir tablets are very small and just one bottle is enough for three months.”

Key investments have also been made into developing new, more efficient diagnosis and screening approaches, starting from paediatric diagnosis of HIV in infants, to HIV treatment monitoring by RNA-PCR viral load testing.

Since 2006, due to efforts by Unitaid and partners, the cost of a DNA (infant HIV) or RNA (viral load) PCR test dropped to less than $10 a test making it affordable and universally accessible. The diagnostics systems at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) serve more than 1 million people living with HIV in Kenya.