As they play innocently in the compounds of displace persons, the smiles of HIV positive children belie the harrowing and near death situation they are in.

International agencies have just issued an alert that a significant number of the 12,000 children on antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs are part of the displaced persons and are unable to access their medication.

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) estimates that at least 100,000 children have been forced to flee their homes due to the wave of the post elections violence that erupted following the December 2007 general elections. Many of them have harrowing stories to tell.

The story of 13-year-old Joy Akinyi (not her real name) is a case in point.  Akinyi was forced to choose between her live and ARV drugs when she dashed from the volatile Kibera slums in Nairobi. It took her four days to survive without the drugs and food.

“When the riots started, the first thing I thought of was my safety. Only to realize later that I had forgotten my drugs in the house that was set a blaze immediately we took off from marauding youths,” recalls Akinyi.

An orphan who lost her parents to HIV/AIDS some years back, Akinyi has been getting drugs from Lea Toto project in Kibera for the past 2 years.

The raging violence stopped her from going back to the health facility to replenish her stock.

Sitting next to her during a press conference organized by Internews, 5-years-old George Owino (not his real name) also lost his drugs during the skirmishes when every thing in their house was stolen. He went without drugs for five days.

“When they broke into our house, they took everything including Owino’s drugs,” says Ms Grace Atieno, Owino’s maternal grandmother.

Being one of those directly affected by the violence, Ms Atieno now calls on the government to consider delivering food and ARV’s to the people infected in Kibera and other parts of the country where IDP people are camping.

According to Mrs. Elizabeth Kayumbe of Lea Toto project, the over 1,000 children who are currently under their programme from Kibera slum, come from families who cannot afford the life prolonging drugs. They are forced to skip their doses.

This trend is dangerous to the health and survival of the children. Family Health International’s HIV Aids expert Dr. John Adungosi warns that children who have missed drugs due to the violence risk developing resistance strains.

“This is likely to lead to putting the children on second line drugs, which are very expensive” he says.

Children affected are also going to be vulnerable to opportunistic infections, he adds. Unlike adults who use tablets, children formulation comes in syrups, making them less portable, especially when a person has to run away with them, according to Dr Adungosi.

He appealed to medical practitioners in IDP camps to undertake baseline tests to help them continue treating people who have lost their records due to the violence.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health complains that despite the country having free ARVs, recruitment of HIV positive children into pediatric ARV programmes remains a big problem.

Pediatrics dealing with HIV positive children have blamed this on lack of HIV diagnostic tools for children and the difficulties in making clinical decisions on when to start this group of the population on ARVs.

An AWC Feature