Phillip Mwebaza
MONTREAL, CANADA – The 24th International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada, saw the launch of a new Global Alliance for Ending AIDS in Children by 2030, which was declared by key figures.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the alliance to address one of the most evident disparities in the AIDS response.
According to statistics that were just published in the UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2022, only half (52%) of children living with HIV are receiving life-saving treatment, considerably behind adults whose three quarters (76%) are receiving antiretrovirals.
In response to concerns about the stagnation of progress for children and the widening gap between children and adults, UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO, and partners have formed a global alliance to guarantee that by the end of the decade, no child living with HIV is denied treatment and to halt the spread of new infant HIV infections.
According to UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, the vast gap in treatment coverage between children and adults is an outrage.
“Through this alliance, we will channel that outrage into action. By bringing together new improved medicines, new political commitment, and the determined activism of communities, we can be the generation who end AIDS in children. We can win this – but we can only win together,” said Dr Byanyima.
While speaking at the event, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheberyesus stated that no kid should be born with HIV or age with HIV, and no child with HIV should go without treatment.
“The fact that only half of the children with HIV receive antiretrovirals is a scandal and a stain on our collective conscience. The Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children is an opportunity to renew our commitment to children and their families to unite, to speak and to act with purpose and in solidarity with all mothers, children and adolescents,” stated Dr Tedros.
The coalition also comprises national governments in the most affected countries, social movements like the Global Network of People Living with HIV, and international partners like PEPFAR and the Global Fund.
Addressing the International AIDS Conference, Limpho Nteko from Lesotho call upon a need for joint collaboration in order for the task at hand to be accomplished.
“We must all sprint together to end AIDS in children by 2030 and to succeed, we need a healthy, informed generation of young people who feel free to talk about HIV, and to get the services and support they need to protect themselves and their children from HIV,” said Ms. Nteko.
Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are the twelve counties that have been attracted by the alliance so far.
Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, pledged to “change the lives of children left behind” by creating needed systems that will ensure that health services are offered to young people with HIV.
At a Ministerial conference in October 2022, Nigeria will host the political launch of the alliance in Africa, according to Dr. Ehanire.