Health Tips

In 2005, UNICEF and partners launched the Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign for children on the global AIDS agenda. HIV and AIDS and their impact on children continue to remain at the core of the work of UNICEF. For too long children have been the missing face of HIV and AIDS response and their needs are often overlooked. Yet they are the ones who offer the best hope for defeating the epidemic.
HIV and AIDS key data:-

1. Global and regional estimatesIn 2007:

• An estimated 33.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV

• Approximately 2.1 million children under 15 are living with HIV

• An estimated 2.5 million people newly infected with HIV

• An estimated 420,000 children under 15 were newly infected with HIV

• An estimated 2.1 million people died from AIDS-related causes

• An estimated 290,000 children under 15 deceased from AIDS-related causes
UNAIDS regional estimates for children under 14 years living with HIV (2005):-

• Sub-Saharan Africa: 2 million

• South and Southeast Asia: 170,000

• East Asia: 6400

• Oceania (Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea) :-3000

• Latin America: 32,000

• Caribbean: 22.000

• Middle East and North Africa:- 31,000

• Eastern Europe and Central Asia: 6900

• Western and Central Europe: 4000

• North America: 11,000
2. The four P:-
Prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT):-

• Every day, nearly 1150 children worldwide become infected with HIV - the vast majority of them newborns infected through mother to child transmission

• In low-and middle-income countries, the proportion of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving antiretroviral prophylaxis to reduce the risk of transmission increased from 10 percent in 2004 to 23 percent in 2006.

• In East and Southern Africa, the proportion of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving antiretroviral prophylaxis for PMTCT increased from 11 percent in 2004 to 31 percent in 2006.
Pediatric care and treatment:-

• Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly 90 percent of all children with HIV.

• Most children are infected with the virus while still in the womb, during birth or during breastfeeding.

• In low-and middle-income countries, 127,300 HIV-positive children receiving antiretroviral treatment in 2006, compared with 75,000 in 2005 - an increase of 70 percent.
Prevention of infection among adolescents and young people:-

• In 2007, youth aged 15-24 account for approximately 40 percent of new HIV infections among adults 15 years and older.

• The total number of young men and women aged 15-24 living with HIV is estimated at 5.4 million. Of these 3.28 million live in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Recent data suggest that HIV prevalence among pregnant women aged 15-24 years attending antenatal clinics has declined since 2000/2001 in 11 of the 15 countries with sufficient data. These include 8 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Protection, care and support for children affected by AIDS:-

• The estimated number of children under 18 years by the AIDS orphan in sub-Saharan Africa doubled between 2000 and 2007, to 12.1 million.

• Recent research in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan shows how HIV-related stigma and discrimination prevent children from receiving basic social services and sometimes lead to long-term institutionalization and denial of parental care.

• It is estimated that between 10 percent and 20 percent of the children of HIV-infected mothers in the Russian Federation have been abandoned at birth to enable institutions, including hospitals.

• In most countries, children who lost both parents often have less to school than children whose parents are both still alive, but the difference seems to shrink in many countries.