For World AIDS Day today, since so many other LGBT sites are ably covering how HIV/AIDS continues to impact the LGBTQ community, I want instead to highlight once again some statistics about HIV/AIDS and children. There has been a drop in new infections over the last few years, but even so, the numbers are still sobering.
According to the latest UNAIDS estimates (via Avert):
- First, the good news: There’s been a 58 percent drop in new HIV infections among children since 2002.
- Now, the bad news: An estimated 240,000 children became newly infected in 2013. At the end of that year, 3.2 million children [those under 15 years of age] were living with HIV around the world.
- Of the 1.5 million people who died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2013, 190,000 were children.
- Most children infected with HIV were infected through their mother either during pregnancy, labor and delivery, or breastfeeding.
- Antiretroviral drugs for both mother and child can help prevent transmission of HIV to the child. Unfortunately, around 54 percent of pregnant women in 2013 did not receive an HIV test. Of those who did and tested positive, 7 out of 10 received antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission — but only 49 percent continued to take them during breastfeeding — and breastfeeding is responsible for half of all HIV transmissions from mother-to-child.
- Only 24 percent of children needing antiretroviral treatment received it in 2013.
- Most children living with HIV/AIDS — almost 9 in 10 — live in sub-Saharan Africa.
UNICEF also has more information at its Children and AIDS site, and notes, soberingly: “While all other age groups have experienced a decline of nearly 40 per cent in AIDS-related deaths between 2005 and 2013, adolescents aged 10 to 19 are the only age group in which AIDS-related deaths are not decreasing.”
There are so many factors that can impact solutions — class, race, homophobia, globalization, education, medical research, drug development, logistics, and more. I am impressed by those who work actively to end the crisis by addressing any or all of these facets. For those of us without expertise or inclination to help more directly, there are still many ways to contribute; supporting UNICEF programs is one.