U.S. Panel Named to Improve Treatment for Children With AIDS

Federal health officials, calling AIDS in children “different . . . and less well understood than in adults,” Friday announced the formation of a special group on pediatric treatment of AIDS.

“Children with AIDS have a particular dependency--in many cases, virtually total dependency--on the community and on government,” Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen said at a press conference.

‘A Special Claim’

He added: “Because of their health care needs and the high costs of treatment; because of the stigma which they, like others with AIDS, often face; because of the fragility of their own families and the poverty into which they are so often born--for these and other reasons, children with AIDS make a special claim on us.”

Bowen said the purpose of the committee would be “to cut across agency lines, ensuring that we provide not only the best medical response but also the best use of our social programs on behalf of these children.”

AIDS in children is different from the disease in adults, both in its medical course and in its social needs, such as foster care, Bowen said. “Many of these services are supported through HHS programs, and we must ensure that the services are available when needed,” he said.

‘Still Learning’

Further, Bowen said, “We are still learning the extent to which . . . infection in children may lead to conditions other than those typically associated with AIDS in adults.”

The group, made up of representatives from various Health and Human Services Department agencies, will be headed by Dr. Antonia C. Novello, deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

Novello said the group planned to identify what is--and is not--being done by the federal government in the area of pediatric AIDS treatment and present Bowen with a report and recommendations by Aug. 30.

“We will identify gaps in research, health and social services, prevention, financing and counseling,” Novello said.

Since the epidemic began in 1981, about 850 children up to age 12 have contracted AIDS, as well as about 200 others between the ages of 13 and 18.

Sharp Rise in Cases Seen

For every one child with AIDS, Bowen said, “at least another two are . . . infected--and the number is probably higher.” By 1991, he said, the Public Health Service has estimated that 3,000 American children will have AIDS and from 10,000 to 20,000 American children will be infected with the virus.

Some of the children who now have AIDS were infected through contaminated blood or blood products, but most of them were born infected by intravenous drug-using mothers who received the AIDS virus through the sharing of contaminated hypodermic needles.

Many of the mothers have since contracted AIDS and died. Thus, most of the children--minority members, to a large extent--have either been orphaned or abandoned.

Invades Nervous System

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, destroys the body’s immune system, leaving it powerless against certain cancers and otherwise rare infections. It can invade the central nervous system, causing severe neurological disorders.