HIV-positive pregnant mothers contract the virus - will not require new scientifi

HIV-positive pregnant mothers contract the virus - will not require new scientific breakthroughs, said Jimmy Kolker, HIV/AIDS chief of UNICEF. Innovative financing and outreach are needed to enable people, especially women, youth and infants, to take advantage of available HIV prevention and treatment therapy.

"If you look at current programmes, we don't have enough money to do the kinds of dramatic increases and innovations we need to make these programmes actually result in an AIDS-free generation by 2015," Kolker told IRIN/PlusNews before the official launch of Children and AIDS: Fifth Stocktaking Report, at UNICEF headquarters on 30 November.

"We do need to think differently about children and AIDS, especially the prevention of mother-to-child transmission [PMTCT]."

PMTCT programmes have been significantly scaled up in countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda and Lesotho, which are set to achieve "universal access" of treatment for HIV and AIDS, reaching 80 percent of the affected population in need, by next year. But that has not translated into a steep decline in babies born HIV-positive.

While antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women expanded from 45 percent in 2008 to 53 percent in 2009, infants born to these women did not experience a comparable jump in coverage, increasing only from 32 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2009.