Almost half of the world’s 1.7 million children living with HIV (46%) couldn’t get treatment in 2020, the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), has said.
This is even as the global agency said that 150,000 children were
newly infected with HIV, four times more than the 2020 target of
40,000.
This is contained in the final report from the Start Free, Stay Free,
AIDS Free initiative – a five-year framework that began in 2015,
following the hugely successful Global Plan towards the elimination of
new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers
alive.
UNAIDS and partners warned that progress towards ending AIDS among
children, adolescents and young women has stalled and none of the
targets for 2020 were met.
It added that the new report revealed stark inequalities in access to
HIV prevention and treatment services for children.
“The total number of children on treatment declined for the first
time, despite the fact that nearly 800,000 children living with HIV
are not currently on treatment,” UNAIDS and partners said in a
statement issued in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday.
“It also shows that opportunities to identify infants and young
children living with HIV early are being missed – more than one third
of children born to mothers living with HIV were not tested. If
untreated, around 50% of children living with HIV die before they
reach their second birthday.”
UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Shannon Hader, said the initiatives
for families and children to prevent vertical transmission and to
eliminate children dying of AIDS started 20 years ago, but despite
early and dramatic progress, despite more tools and knowledge than
ever before, children are falling way behind adults.
“It’s time to reactivate on all fronts – we need the leadership,
activism and investments to do what’s right for kids,” he said.
