According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), nearly half of the world’s 1.7 million HIV-positive youngsters would not receive treatment by 2020.
This is stated in the final report of the UNAIDS-led Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS-Free campaign.
UNAIDS stated in the study that progress toward eradicating AIDS among children, adolescents, and young women has slowed, and that non-communicable diseases are on the rise.
Despite the fact that approximately 800,000 children living with HIV are not currently on medication, the UN agency said that the total number of children receiving treatment has decreased for the first time.
It also revealed that more than a third of children born to HIV-positive mothers were not tested, resulting in wasted opportunities to identify HIV-positive newborns and young children.
According to the report, half of HIV-positive infants would die before their second birthday if they are not treated.
Shannon Hader, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Program, commented on the findings, saying it was disappointing that, despite early and dramatic progress over the years, children were lagging far behind adults.
Hader explained that measures for families and children to minimize vertical transmission and eliminate children dying of AIDS over 20 years ago were truly the catalyst for what has since become the worldwide AIDS response.
“Despite early and rapid gains, despite more tools and knowledge than ever before, children are slipping far behind,” says the report.
The 2020 targets were missed, according to her, and the 21 focus nations in Africa achieved more progress than the non-focus countries.
According to Hader, there are significant differences between countries, and these countries continue to face the greatest disease burden.
“Nearly 70% of the missing children—those living with HIV but not on treatment—come from 11 countries,” she said.
She went on to say that between 2015 and 2020, new HIV infections among children in priority countries fell by 24%, compared to a global drop of 20%.
According to Hader, focus countries also reached 89 percent treatment coverage for HIV-positive pregnant women, compared to 85 percent internationally, but this was still short of the objective of 9%, and there were significant disparities between countries.
