URN.Concerned by the stalling of progress for children, and the widening gap between children and adults, UNAIDS, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have brought together a global alliance to ensure that no child living with HIV is denied treatment by the end of the decade and to prevent new infant HIV infections.
Only half of the children living with HIV are on life-saving treatment, far behind adults where three-quarters (76 per cent) are receiving anti-retroviral drugs, according to the data that has just been released in the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Concerned by the stalling of progress for children, and the widening gap between children and adults, UNAIDS, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have brought together a global alliance to ensure that no child living with HIV is denied treatment by the end of the decade and to prevent new infant HIV infections.
The new Global Alliance which in addition to UN agencies includes civil society organizations and governments in most affected countries has selected twelve countries of focus for the initial phase which include Angola, Cameroon, Côted’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Consultations by the alliance have identified four pillars for collective action which include closing the treatment gap for pregnant and breastfeeding adolescent girls and women living with HIV and optimizing continuity of treatment.
The other pillars include preventing and detecting new HIV infections among pregnant and breastfeeding adolescent girls and women, accessible testing, optimized treatment, and comprehensive care for infants, children, and adolescents exposed to and living with HIV and addressing rights, gender equality, and the social and structural barriers that hinder access to services.
Addressing the International AIDS Conference, Limpho Nteko from Lesotho shared how she had discovered she was HIV positive at age 21 while pregnant with her first child. This led her on a journey where she now works for the pioneering women-led mothers2mothers programme. Enabling community leadership, she highlighted, is key to an effective response.
However, the alliance will run for the next eight years until 2030, aiming to fix one of the most glaring disparities in the AIDS response. Alliance members are united in the assessment that the challenge is surmountable through partnership.
For instance, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said the alliance will among others help them bring together new improved medicines, new political commitment, and the determined activism of communities.
On his part, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said the fact that only half of the children with HIV receive anti-retrovirals is a scandal and a stain on the collective conscience.
“No child should be born with or grow up with HIV, and no child with HIV should go without treatment. The Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children is an opportunity to renew our commitment to children and their families to unite, to speak and to act with purpose and in solidarity with all mothers, children and adolescents.”
