News Release
Ministers and representatives from twelve African countries have committed themselves, and laid out their plans, to end AIDS in children by 2030. International partners have set out how they would support countries in delivering on those plans, which were issued at the first ministerial meeting of the Global Alliance to end AIDS in children.
The meeting hosted by the United Republic of Tanzania, marks a step up in action to ensure that all children with HIV have access to life saving treatment and that mothers living with HIV have babies free from HIV. The Alliance will work to drive progress over the next seven years, to ensure that the 2030 target is met.
Currently, around the world, a child dies from AIDS related causes every five minutes.
Only half (52%) of children living with HIV are on life-saving treatment, far behind adults of whom three quarters (76%) are receiving antiretrovirals.
In 2021,160 000 children newly acquired HIV. Children accounted for 15% of all AIDS-related deaths, despite the fact that only 4% of the total number of people living with HIV are children.
In partnership with networks of people living with HIV and community leaders, ministers laid out their action plans to help find and provide testing to more pregnant women and link them to care. The plans also involve finding and caring for infants and children living with HIV.
The Dar-es-Salaam Declaration on ending AIDS in children was endorsed unanimously.
Twelve countries with high HIV burdens have joined the alliance in the first phase: Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The work will centre on four pillars across:
- Early testing and optimal treatment and care for infants, children, and adolescents;
- Closing the treatment gap for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV, to eliminate vertical transmission;
- Preventing new HIV infections among pregnant and breastfeeding adolescent girls and women; and
- Addressing rights, gender equality and the social and structural barriers that hinder access to services.
