African Health Ministers and international partners are uniting in a pledge to end AIDS in children.
Concerned by the stalling of progress for children, and the widening gap between children and adults, UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO and partners have brought together a global alliance to ensure that no child living with HIV is denied treatment by the end of the decade and to prevent new infant HIV infections.
The new Global Alliance for Ending AIDS in Children by 2030 was announced by leading figures at the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada.
In addition to the United Nations agencies, the alliance includes civil society movements, including the Global Network of People living with HIV, national governments in the most affected countries, and international partners, including PEPFAR and the Global Fund.
Hosted by the United Republic of Tanzania, the alliance will run for the next seven years until 2030, aiming to fix one of the most glaring disparities in the AIDS response.
Three quarters of adults living with HIV globally are on treatment while only half (52%) of children living with HIV are on life-saving treatment, far behind adults where three quarters (76%) are receiving antiretrovirals, according to the data that has just been released in the UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2022.
Children accounted for 15% of all AIDS deaths despite making up only 4% of all people living with HIV. The alliance is to advocate and mobilize political commitment and resources to ensure action and accountability around shared targets and commitments.
Twelve countries 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, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Tanzania being one of the first countries to sign up.
