Four in five children living with HIV in West and Central Africa are still not receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy, a report released on Wednesday by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says.
The report – dubbed Step Up the Pace: Towards an AIDS-free generation in West and Central Africa – also indicates that there is a rise in AIDS-related deaths among adolescents aged 15-19 are on the rise.
While acknowledging progress in several areas, the report shows that West and Central Africa is lagging behind on nearly every measure of HIV prevention, treatment and care programmes for children and adolescents.
In 2016, an estimated 60,000 children were newly infected with HIV in West and Central Africa.
“It is tragic that so many children and adolescents today are not receiving the treatment they need just because they have not been tested,” UNICEF’s West and Central Africa Regional Director Marie-Pierre Poirier said.
“We need to make better use of innovations to increase early diagnosis and improve access to HIV treatment and care for children. For example, the point-of-care technology diagnostic brings testing closer to where children attend health services and self-testing can be a good option for adolescents who may be more comfortable with it,” he added.
According to UNAIDS, the region’s coverage of life-saving antiretroviral therapy among children living with HIV is the lowest in the world, because many countries have limited capacity to perform the tests needed for early infant diagnosis of HIV.
Without knowing a child’s HIV status, his or her family is less likely to seek the treatment that could prevent the tragedy of a child’s death from AIDS-related illnesses.
The report highlights that the 24 countries that make up the West and Central Africa region are home to 25 per cent of children aged 0–14 years living with HIV worldwide.
