At 15 percent and 23 percent reduction respectively in AIDS-related paediatric deaths over a six-year period, Angola and Nigeria have made the least progress in recent times. Data from the new UNAIDS report entitled “On The Fast Track To An AIDS Free Generation”, revealed that Nigeria has the largest number of newly infected children with 41,000 cases, equivalent to the numbers of the next eight countries combined.
The report indicated that without Nigeria, the remaining 20 of the 21 Global Plan countries, would have reduced new HIV infections among children by 69 per cent.
New infections
The report said at the end of 2015 Nigeria and other 20 Global Plan focus countries in sub-Saharan Africa had reduced new infections among children by 60 per cent (compared with a reduction of only 24 per cent between 2000 and 2008), indicating that the years since the launch of the Global Plan have seen the proportionate decline almost triple.
Collectively, countries have reduced new HIV infections from 270,000 in 2009 to 110,000 in 2015.
On reduction of HIV-related child deaths, South Africa has made the most progress, having reduced deaths by 90 per cent, followed by Burundi (81 percent) and Swaziland (80 percent.
From the report, between 2002 and 2008, before the Global Plan, the number of AIDS-related deaths among children aged 0–4 years fell by 25 percent, from 192 000 to 143 000. Between 2009 and 2015, the reduction in AIDS-related paediatric mortality in children aged 0–4 years was 62 percent, falling from 129 000 to 49 000 deaths.
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Factors AIDS-related paediatric deaths is driven by three factors viz, reduction of new infections among children through prevention of mother-to-child transmission services; increasing access to paediatric treatment; and reduction in AIDS-related deaths among women.
In an outline, the gains made from 2009 to 2015 during the implementation of the Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive, showed that today, 60 percent fewer children are infected with HIV annually in the 21 Global Plan countries than in 2009.
In addition, two million additional women are now receiving antiretroviral therapy, while HIV infections among children have decreased by more than 70 per cent.
Progress
While Uganda has made the greatest progress, reducing new infections by 86 per cent, followed by South Africa and Burundi (84 per cent each), Swaziland (80 per cent), Namibia (79 per cent) and Mozambique (75 per cent).
Botswana, Burundi, Namibia and Swaziland had fewer than 1000 new infections in 2015. Angola and Nigeria have made slower progress, registering less than a 40 per cent reduction in new HIV infections among children since 2009.
Among the 21 countries, 1.2 million new HIV infections among children have been averted since 2009. Behind it are countless empowered mothers living with HIV who have successfully protected their children. Thousands of families and communities now have HIV-free children, and resources that would have otherwise been spent on treatment that can be used for other family needs.
Most of the progress in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV has been in only the past five years. Of the 1.4 million paediatric infections averted since 2000 through provision of antiretroviral medicines to pregnant women living with HIV, 88 per cent were prevented between 2009 and 2015.
By: Sola Ogundipe
Vanguad News
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