AIDS affects one child and one teenager every 100 seconds around the world

No less than 320,000 new HIV infections were recorded in children and adolescents in 2019, according to a report released by UNICEF on the occasion of World AIDS Day on December 1. This represents an infection every 100 seconds around the world.

In total, there were 2.8 million HIV-positive children and adolescents and 1.3 million HIV-positive pregnant women worldwide in 2019. This report, which highlights regional disparities but also the need to step up prevention efforts and treatment for children, reveals that 82,000 children under the age of 5 were infected during pregnancy and 68,000 during breastfeeding.

Don’t forget the children

Through these figures, UNICEF recalls that “interventions aimed at combating HIV tend to forget children” and warns governments on the need to maintain essential health services in times of Covid-19; the pandemic has accentuated inequalities and limited access to treatment. UNICEF specifically reports that HIV treatments and viral load tests for children in some countries fell by between 50% and 70% during the months of April and May 2020, in full containment.

Reduction of salaries

The same is true for the introduction of new treatments, down from 25% to 50% over the same period, as well as for deliveries within health and maternal care facilities (-20% to -60%). All the indicators are red both in terms of prevention and treatment, although in recent months there has been a recovery in services.

“There is no HIV vaccine yet”

“As the world fights a pandemic, hundreds of thousands of children continue to fall victim to the ravages of the AIDS epidemic. There is still no HIV vaccine. Children continue to be infected at alarming rates and die from AIDS. And the situation was already critical before Covid-19 disrupted vital HIV treatment and prevention services, endangering countless more lives, “said Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF.

The United Nations Children’s Fund also reminds us that children seem particularly neglected in terms of HIV prevention and treatment, even before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The report notes that just over half of the world’s children had access to life-saving care in 2019, compared to 62 percent of HIV-positive adults and 85 percent of mothers.