New drug guide: UNICEF and WHO

• April 25, 2024

Both organizations published online a new list of medications with pediatric formulations that will help doctors and organizations learn about 240 essential medicines for save the life to girls and boys.

The publication Sources and Prices of Selected Medicines for Children It offers updated data on 612 different pediatric formulations, of 240 drugs selected from the WHO Model List of Essential Pediatric Drugs, in addition to therapeutic foods and supplements, vitamins and minerals, used in the main pediatric diseases.

It is estimated that 9 million children die each year from preventable and treatable causes. The availability and accessibility of pediatric medications Insurance is far from being a reality for many children in poor countries.

More than half of these deaths are due to diseases that could be treated with safe essential pediatric medicines, such as acute respiratory infections and pneumonia (17%), diarrheal diseases (17%), serious neonatal infections (9%) , malaria (7%) or HIV / AIDS (2%).

The WHO Model List of Essential Pediatric Drugs is available in: 2010 in English 2007 in Spanish

10 WHO data on childhood drugs

1. The latest estimates of UNICEF are: in 2007, approximately 10 million children under 5 died; more than half, for diseases that could have been treated with essential medicines, safe and specific for children.

2. 20% of deaths in children under 5 years of age are due to acute lower respiratory tract infections (the most important cause of infant mortality worldwide). Pneumonias are responsible for approximately two million annual deaths that could be prevented with adequate access to specific medications for children.

3. Although it only accounts for 3% of the annual deaths of children under 5 years of age, pediatric HIV infection is becoming a public health emergency. It is estimated that 1,200 children are infected each day, and only 15% have access to treatment. In 2007 alone, 420,000 children under the age of 15 were infected and 330,000 died of AIDS-related illnesses.

4. Each year one million children die of malaria, 40% of the world live in countries where this disease is endemic. In Africa, a minor dies every 30 seconds for this reason. Although malaria has been the subject of numerous global conferences and calls for action, the development of specific treatments for children and access to them are problems that are not resolved.

5. Each year 1.9 million children under 5 die from diarrhea and its complications. This represents 18% of deaths in this sector of the population and means that every day 5 thousand children die of diarrheal diseases that could be treated easily and effectively.

6. Approximately 1.1 (12%) of the 8.8 million new cases of tuberculosis registered in 2005 corresponded to children under 14 years of age.

7. The WHO estimates that 330 million children under 15 years of age need chemotherapy to prevent lymphatic filariasis in endemic areas (Asia, Pacific, Africa and South America). Another 125 million children under 15 need prophylaxis against schistosomiasis.

8. In the absence of pediatric formulations, health professionals and parents use as unsafe alternatives fractions of pharmaceutical forms for adults or improvise treatments by crushing tablets or dissolving in water part of the contents of the capsules.

9. There is little knowledge about the effects that some medications can have on minors. This is partly due to the fact that there are fewer clinical studies in infants than in adults. According to the WHO in 2005, potentially harmful medication errors could be three times more frequent in the pediatric population than in adults.

10. According to UNICEF and WHO, the probability of dying before age 5 is 30 times higher for an Ethiopian child than for a girl or boy from Western Europe.

Video Medicine: UNODC Conference Vienna 2018: Health and Sustainability for a Better Life (April 2024).