Approximately every minute and 40 seconds, a child or young person under the age of 20 contracted HIV last year, bringing the total number of children living with HIV to 2.8 million, UNICEF said in a report published on November 25, 2020.
The report, Reimagining a resilient HIV response for children, adolescents and pregnant women living with HIV , warns that children are being left behind in the fight against HIV.
Prevention and treatment efforts for children remain among the lowest of key affected populations. In 2019, just over half of all children worldwide had access to life-saving treatments, significantly lower than coverage for both mothers (85%) and all adults living with HIV (62%). Nearly 110,000 children died of AIDS that year.
Despite some progress in the decades-long fight against HIV and AIDS, profound regional disparities persist among all populations, especially for children, the report says. Pediatric antiretroviral treatment coverage is highest in the Middle East and North Africa, at 81%, followed by South Asia (76%), Eastern and Southern Africa (58%), East Asia and the Pacific (50%), Latin America and the Caribbean (46%), and West and Central Africa (32%).
“Even as the world grapples with an ongoing global pandemic, hundreds of thousands of children continue to suffer the devastating effects of the HIV epidemic,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “There is still no vaccine against HIV. Children are still being infected at an alarming rate and continue to die from AIDS. This was even before COVID-19 disrupted vital HIV prevention and treatment services, putting many more lives at risk.”
The COVID-19 crisis has further exacerbated inequalities in access to life-saving HIV services for children, adolescents, and pregnant mothers worldwide.
In a recent UNICEF survey of 29 priority countries for HIV, one-third responded that service coverage for children, adolescents and women living with and vulnerable to HIV is 10% or more lower compared to pre-pandemic figures.
The UNAIDS HIV service disruption data cited in the report further illustrate the impact of necessary control measures, supply chain disruptions, lack of personal protective equipment, and the redeployment of health workers in HIV services.
In April and May, coinciding with partial and total lockdowns, pediatric HIV treatment and viral load testing in children in some countries decreased by 50 to 70 percent, and the initiation of new treatments decreased by 25 to 50 percent.
Similarly, it was also reported that births at health centers and maternal treatment had decreased by between 20 and 60%, maternal HIV testing and ART initiation decreased by between 25% and 50%, and child testing services decreased by approximately 10%.
Although the easing of control measures and the strategic targeting of children and pregnant mothers have led to an upturn in services in recent months, challenges remain and the world is still far from achieving the global pediatric HIV targets for 2020.
Additional data from 2019 included in the report:
- 150,000 children aged 0 to 9 were recently infected with HIV, bringing the total number of children in this age group living with HIV to 1.1 million.
- 170,000 adolescents aged 10-19 were recently infected with HIV, bringing the total number of adolescents living with HIV to 1.7 million.
- 130,000 adolescent girls were infected with HIV in 2019, compared to 44,000 adolescent boys.
- The total number of AIDS-related deaths of children and adolescents was 110,000; 79,000 were aged 0 to 9 years and 34,000 were aged 10 to 19 years.
- Mothers' access to antiretroviral therapy to prevent transmission of the virus to their babies increased globally to 85%, and early childhood diagnosis reached 60%.
- The number of pregnant women living with HIV was 1.3 million; an estimated 82,000 children under the age of five were infected during pregnancy or childbirth and 68,000 during breastfeeding.
The report urges all governments to protect, maintain and accelerate progress in the fight against childhood HIV by maintaining essential health services and strengthening health systems.