"LONDON (Reuters) - Children are dying for lack of drugs tailored to their needs, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which launched a global campaign on Thursday to promote more research into child medicine.
More than half the drugs currently used to treat children in the industrialised world have not been specifically tested on youngsters, even though they metabolise medicines differently to adults.
As a result, clinicians lack clear guidelines on the best drug to use and often have to guess at the correct dose.
The problem is even worse in developing countries where price remains a major barrier and 6 million children die each year from treatable conditions.
In the case of HIV/AIDS, the few existing paediatric therapies developed for children generally cost three times more than adult ones."
Everyone should know about this and do what they can to remedy the situation.
2007-12-18
18:57:16
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Faith
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