The Indian Council of Medical Research may extend funds to support single or multi centric projects to undertake in-depth research on various aspects of Paediatric HIV, considering the high prevalence of the immune deficiency syndrome in children.

The council has called for project proposals from interested institutions and groups including authentic non government organisations (NGOs) to conduct the study, expecting to throw more light on the paediatric HIV scenario in India. The ICMR officials point out that the specific information on paediatric HIV and its treatment in the country is yet to be properly compiled.

Although the government and World Health Organisation (WHO) have initiatives to make anti retroviral treatment (ART) accessible to the large chunk of patient population, very few children in India had access to ART till year 2005. This is despite the fact that children represented 4 per cent of the total population of HIV/AIDS and accounted for almost 18 per cent of the deaths in 2005, senior ICMR officials said quoting the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) figures.

As per the figures available with NACO up to August 2006, 5596 out of the total 124995 HIV patients were under 14 years of age. The new AIDS infections among children were 0.05 and 0.06 million cases in the years 2003 and 2004 respectively, even as half of these children die undiagnosed before their 2nd birthday.

The ICMR initiative to fund the single or multi-centric studies would cover the entire spectrum of prevention and treatment of the syndrome in this age group, in order to prepare a comprehensive data on the paediatric HIV and the methods to be adopted to curb the prevalence of disease.

The key research areas identified in Paediatric HIV infections includes projects on clinical manifestations including cohort study - enrolment and follow up for clinical manifestations, cost efficacy of special immunizations (Hib, pneumococcal, chicken pox) etc.

The studies on metabolic disorders in children on ART - incidence and effect on outcome, growth pattern of HIV infected children and treatment projects including pharmacokinetic studies on nevirapine and efavirence, efficacy of ART, methods and efficacy of fixed dose combinations, comparison with PI base regimen would be some other areas of studies which would be eligible for ICMR support.

Apart, the projects on drug resistance like surveillance for drug resistance in children on ART in relation to time, drug resistance in mother and child pairs who were treated with single dose nevirapine during perinatal period, alternative regimen for failing regimens (3 TC, structured treatment interruption), surrogate markers for early detection of drug resistance etc would be financially assisted by the council, according to officials.

"We are not restricting the funds for any limit, but the proposals should be quoted with realistic amounts for the particular project," said an ICMR official in charge of the initiative. The projects should be of minimum three years duration and the proposals should be submitted before December 15, 2007, added the official.