The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Friday that 110,00 young people under the age of 19 died last year from AIDS-related causes, bringing the total number of young people living with HIV to 2.7 million when combined with the 310,000 newly infected.
2.7 million young people are affected by three years of stagnant advancement in HIV prevention and treatment.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Friday that 110,00 young people under the age of 19 died last year from AIDS-related causes, bringing the total number of young people living with HIV to 2.7 million when combined with the 310,000 newly infected.
In advance of World AIDS Day on Thursday, UNICEF issued a warning in its most recent global snapshot on children, HIV, and AIDS that advancements in HIV prevention and treatment have nearly stagnated over the past three years, and many regions still do not have service coverage comparable to that of the pre-pandemic era.
“Though children have long lagged behind adults in the AIDS response, the stagnation seen in the last three years is unprecedented, putting too many young lives at risk of sickness and death,” said UNICEF Associate Chief of HIV/AIDS Anurita Bains.
This comes on top of an existing and growing gap in treatment between adults and children, adolescents, and pregnant women.
“Children are falling through the cracks because we are collectively failing to find and test them and get them on life-saving treatment”, she continued.
“Every day that goes by without progress, over 300 children and adolescents lose their fight against AIDS.”
Children and adolescents made up only 7% of all HIV-positive people, but they were responsible for 17% of AIDS-related deaths and 21% of new HIV infections in 2016.
Ending AIDS in children and adolescents will remain a distant goal unless the causes of inequities are addressed, UNICEF warns.
Longer-term trends are still positive, the snapshot reveals
Between 2010 and 2021, the number of new HIV infections among children under the age of 14 decreased by 52%, and those among those between the ages of 15 and 19 decreased by 40%.
In a similar vein, the percentage of pregnant women with HIV who received lifelong antiretroviral treatment (ART) rose from 46% to 81 % in a single decade.
While there are fewer kids living with HIV overall, there is a growing treatment gap between kids and adults.
Children’s ART coverage in UNICEF’s HIV-priority countries was 56% in 2020 but dropped to 54% in 2021.
The pandemic and other global crises that have increased poverty and marginalisation were some of the causes of the decline.
The failure, though, is also a result of waning political will and a lagging child AIDS response.
Only 52% of children living with HIV worldwide had access to treatment, a number that has barely risen over the past few years.
Meanwhile, coverage among all adults with HIV was 76%, more than 20 percentage points higher than it was among kids.
Additionally, there was an 81 percent difference between HIV-positive pregnant women and children.
Additionally, the proportion of kids with HIV under the age of four who are not receiving ART increased to 72% last year, matching the level from 2012.
In 2020, treatment coverage declined for expectant and nursing mothers in Asia and the Pacific, the Caribbean, Eastern and Southern Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and West and Central Africa.
Additionally, coverage in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Asia and the Pacific, continued to decline in 2021.
None of the aforementioned regions have reached 2019 levels of recovery, increasing the risk to the lives of newborn children, with the exception of West and Central Africa, which continues to experience the highest burden of mother-to-child transmission.
Because pregnant women were not diagnosed and started on treatment in 2021, there were more than 75,000 new infections in children.
“With renewed political commitment to reaching the most vulnerable, strategic partnership and resources to scale up programmes, we can end AIDS in children, adolescents and pregnant women”, Ms. Bains said.
