Court battle over boy's HIV treatment

A specialist in treating children with HIV has told the High Court that a 9-year-old boy with the virus will die sooner and have a lower quality of life if he does not get the medical care needed.

The doctor, whose name is suppressed, gave evidence of how the boy's condition remained unchanged even though his father had claimed to be administering medication.

Test results suggested the boy was not getting the treatment his father was meant to be providing, the court heard.

The evidence was given in a hearing this morning in which a health board asked the court to give its doctors guardianship in relation to the boy's HIV treatment.

The case came after years of effort by the doctors to have the boy's father administer medication himself.

The father's lawyer has told the court her client has questioned the HIV diagnosis and the effectiveness of medication. An agreement with the hospital board currently allows nurses to treat the boy daily at his home.

The hospital is seeking a permanent, court ordered, agreement.

Extensive suppression orders cover the case, including the boy's identity and that of his doctors.

The boy is unaware he is HIV-positive.

One of the two doctors to testify this morning said medical guidelines stipulated treatment could have started years earlier.

She said the hospital had relied on the father to treat the boy but believed he had not.

At one stage concerns over the father's adherence to the boy's medication led to treatment being stopped for fear occasional treatment would increase the boy's resistance to the drugs.

The doctor said interrupted treatment of the boy had long-term adverse impact on the boy's immune system.

David Fisher of the New Zealand Herald