To address the growing need for care and treatment of children with HIV/AIDS in the developing world, Baylor College of Medicine has received a grant from the Abbott Fund's Step Forward programme to link Baylor's individual paediatric HIV clinics through the creation of the Baylor Children's Clinical Centres of Excellence Network.

The Baylor Network is comprised of Baylor and local-country health professionals working in paediatric clinics that provide care and treatment to 3,000 children in the developing world, more than any other organization worldwide. Key areas of focus for the Baylor Network include training health professionals, conducting research, and the sharing of knowledge and best practices to advance the treatment of children with HIV.

Baylor and the Abbott Fund's Step Forward programme began their partnership to create pioneering solutions for children affected by HIV/AIDS and their families in 2001 through the creation of the Romanian-American Children's Centre, the first stand-alone paediatric HIV clinic in a resource-limited setting, the release says.

The clinic in Romania has since served as the model for subsequent Baylor clinics, including the recently announced Abbott-funded clinic in Malawi that will be completed by December 2005. The rapidly expanding Baylor Network also includes clinics supported by other donors located in Botswana, Uganda and Libya. Two additional clinics in Lesotho and Swaziland are also due to open by the end of 2005.

The Abbott Fund's Step Forward programme grant of $600,000 to fund the creation and ongoing operations of the Baylor Network is the latest example of the successful Abbott-Baylor partnership. To date, Abbott and the Abbott Fund have provided more than $12 million in grants and donated product to Baylor initiatives aimed at transforming the lives of children living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world.

"In only a few years, the Baylor model of paediatric treatment has expanded from one clinic in Romania to six additional paediatric centres operating in countries throughout Africa," said Jeff Richardson, executive director of the Abbott Fund's Step Forward program. "Through the Baylor Network, local-country health professionals and Baylor staff now have the opportunity to interact and discuss global and local-country advances in paediatric care, and to work together to further advance the scale-up of paediatric treatment programmes around the world," he added.

According to UNAIDS, there are currently more than 2.1 million children below the age of 15 with HIV in the developing world, and 1,700 more children become infected every day. With the influx of international funding, many countries are beginning to scale up antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programs. However, due to the overwhelming impact of the AIDS pandemic, the complexity of treating HIV-infected children, and a lack of resources and specialized training, few countries have prioritized the treatment of HIV-infected children.