Making an AIDS-free generation a reality is possible

Making an AIDS-free generation a reality is possible, according to the Children and AIDS, Fifth Stocktaking Report: a renewed call to action issued today in New York by UNICEF, in partnership with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The international community must redouble their efforts to reach the most vulnerable and marginalised members of society to make this happen, note the authors.

“To achieve an AIDS-free generation we need to do more to reach the hardest hit communities. Every day, nearly 1,000 babies in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV through mother-to-child transmission,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF’s Executive Director. “Our Fifth Stocktaking Report on children and AIDS highlights innovations like the Mother-Baby Pack that can bring life-saving antiretroviral treatment to more mothers and their babies than ever before,” said Lake.

While progress continues to be made in HIV prevention, treatment and social protection, much remains to be done.

“The elimination of new HIV-infections and AIDS-related deaths in children is possible, but it will require vision, leadership and system-wide improvements in health-care delivery, as well as deep-seated social change and continued implementation of best practices,” stress the authors.

Thirty years into the epidemic and children are now central to the HIV response. Investments on behalf of children have made a significant difference. Improved evidence has led to new guidance for women and children in the global HIV response and increased action means “the story of how the AIDS epidemic is affecting children is being rewritten”.

Yet millions of women and children continue to fall through the cracks. Progress is uneven, revealing gaps in service coverage as well as inequities rooted in gender, economic status, geographical location, education level and social status.

Without addressing these barriers universal access to knowledge, care, protection and prevention of mother-to-child (PMTCT) transmission for all women and children will be difficult to achieve, note the authors.

Funding continues to lag behind what is needed to scale-up evidence-based strategies. Reaching the goal of an AIDS-free generation can only happen when this scale-up is part of a “rights-based, results-focused drive to reach all those in need.”

In 2005, UNICEF, UNAIDS and other partners launched Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS to focus attention and resources dedicated to putting children at the heart of the global response.

This is the fifth in the series of annual stocktaking reports published by the partnership, examining progress toward the goal of universal access to prevention, treatment and care.

The report looks at progress made in the global response for children in four programme areas known as the ‘Four Ps’:

• Preventing mother-to-child transmission

• Paediatric HIV care and treatment

• Preventing HIV infection among adolescents and young people

• Protecting and supporting children affected by HIV and AIDS.