28/10/2005
UN launched groundbreaking campaign to support children affected by AIDS

The United Nations and its partners last week launched a global campaign to support the millions of children affected by HIV/AIDS.

The campaign aims to provide 80 per cent of women in need with services to prevent transmission to their babies (compared with less than 10 per cent today), antiretroviral treatment to 80 per cent of children in need and reducing the number living with HIV by 25 per cent, all this by 2010.

In line with internationally agreed goals, it will also protect and support children affected by AIDS. By 2010 80 per cent of children most in need of public support and services should be reached by the international community.

“Nearly 25 years into the pandemic, help is reaching less than 10 per cent of the children affected by HIV/AIDS, leaving too many children to grow up alone, grow up too fast or not grow up at all,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

With one child dying of AIDS and another becoming infected with HIV every minute, “a whole generation has never known a world free of HIV and AIDS, yet the magnitude of the problem dwarfs the scale of the response so far,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said.

Fewer than five per cent of HIV-positive youngsters are receiving treatment. Launching the global campaign - Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS - at UN Headquarters in New York, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) noted that, also every minute, four young people aged 15-24 become infected with HIV.

In addition, an estimated 15 million children have lost at least one parent because of AIDS.

“In the past quarter-century, HIV/AIDS has claimed the lives of more than 20 million people and lowered average life expectancy in the hardest-hit countries by as much as 30 years,” Veneman added.

Only one per cent children born to infected mothers have access to cotrimoxazole, a low-cost antibiotic that can nearly halve child deaths from AIDS by fighting off deadly infections.

By 2010, it is estimated that there will be 18 million children who have lost at least one parent to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Well before parents die, children – especially girls – have to take on adult tasks such as caring for the sick, looking after younger siblings, generating income to pay for health costs, or producing food. Often they must drop out of school.

“AIDS continues to tear apart families and communities, leaving behind 15 million orphans and robbing countries of their future,” UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said. “If countries are to develop, we must put children first. Children must therefore be a major priority when it comes to the way we allocate and use resources.”