NAIROBI, Nov. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A international health charity on Tuesday called on pharmaceutical firms to develop cheap and child-friendly versions of anti-AIDS drugs if the scourge of the killer disease is to be contained.

    Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) said there is a desperate need for simple and affordable AIDS tests for babies in resource-poor settings, and called on drug manufacturers to focus on child sufferers of the disease, most of whom live in Africa.

    "In the absence of child-strength pills that combine all needed drugs in one tablet, medical staff and caregivers are often forced to crush combination pills meant for adults," MSF said in a statement issued here ahead of the World AIDS Day on Thursday.

    "MSF is giving anti-retroviral medicines to nearly 800 children living with HIV/AIDS here in Kenya," said Rachel Thomas, medical coordinator of the MSF project in Kibera, Nairobi.

    "The results are very good, but it's an uphill battle. As well as being less effective, under dosing may lead to the virus becoming resistant to the treatment, whereas overdosing can be toxic for these youngest patients," Thomas added.

    The Global Health Charity said 75 percent of the 1,300 Kenyan children currently receiving anti-retrovirals get them through their programs and it is estimated that 17,000 more children in the country need treatment now.

    Nine out of 10 children born with HIV live in Africa do not have access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs, according to MSF.

    "Existing tests to detect the virus in children are unaffordable or impractical in resource-poor settings, and the routine test available in poor countries is useless in babies younger than 18 months because their blood still contains antibodies from the mother," MSF said.

    It called for a massive increase in research and development into tests that can detect the virus in babies, and into simple child-strength pill combinations.

    "We don't yet have a cure, but AIDS is a treatable disease. Many more young children could lead relatively normal lives with appropriate tests and medicines, but millions of children are still waiting," concluded Thomas. Enditem