UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

Chapter 8The needs of children and orphans221By 2004, 16 every single day, about 1500 babies were born HIVpositive or were becoming infected through breastfeeding,despite proven methods of preventing transmission from motherto-child17 . In developed countries, the vast majority of positive pregnant women wereenrolled in prevention programmes and their babies were born negative. UNAIDS had beenpromoting these prevention programmes from its first year yet, in Africa, only one pregnantwoman out of 20 has access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission. By 2007, theglobal coverage of pregnant women living with HIV was 9% 18 .Yet less than halfof the countrieswith the mostacute crisis hadnational policiesin place to provideessential supportto childrenorphaned or madevulnerable by theepidemic.Children living with HIV and those orphaned by AIDS (themselves often positive) were aneglected group. By 2004, an estimated 11.4 million children under the age of 18 had lostone or both parents to AIDS, 9.6 million of whom were living in sub-Saharan Africa 19 . Yetless than half of the countries with the most acute crisis had national policies in place toprovide essential support to children orphaned or made vulnerable by the epidemic. Therewere no specific paediatric formulations of antiretroviral drugs for children, so only a smallpercentage of those in need were receiving treatment.Several of UNAIDS’ Cosponsors, notably the United Nations Children’s Fund and UNFPA,had been working on programmes for children, including orphans, for some years. Therevised version of the major publication, Children on the Brink, was published by UNICEFfor the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, but it was not until October 2005that UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman and Piot launched, with then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a global advocacy and fundraising campaign for children affected byHIV under the slogan ‘Unite for children, unite against AIDS’. It was another UN system-wideinitiative. The programme aims to prevent mother-to-child transmission, provide paediatrictreatment, stem new HIV infections and help orphans affected by the crisis.“Nearly 25 years into the pandemic, help is reaching less than 10% of the children affectedby HIV, leaving too many children to grow up alone, grow up too fast or not grow up at all”,said the Secretary-General at the launch.Veneman said: “This very visible disease continues to have an invisible face, a missing face, achild’s face”. She explained that in some of the hardest-hit countries, the AIDS pandemic is“unravelling years of progress for children”. She noted that concrete measures to address theimpact of AIDS on children would be essential to meeting the UN Millennium DevelopmentGoals: “A whole generation has never known a world free of HIV and AIDS, yet the magnitudeof the problem dwarfs the scale of the response so far”.17UNAIDS (2004). Global Report 2004. UNAIDS, Geneva.18United Nations (2007).19UNAIDS (2004). Global Report 2004. UNAIDS, Geneva.