Photo © Sheila Shettle
Every minute, a child under the age of 15 is infected with HIV. AIDS kills over 1,000 children every day, and claims roughly half a million young lives every year[1].
In rich countries, paediatric HIV/AIDS is largely under control: prevention of motherto-child transmission is successful, and infants and children have access to diagnostics and antiretroviral therapy. But 87% of the estimated 2.3 million children living with HIV/AIDS grow up in subSaharan Africa[2], and the vast majority are beyond the reach of these health services. They are condemned to die due to lack of access to treatment. Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) experience has shown that children respond very well to treatment and can get better quickly. However, practical issues make diagnosing
and treating children infected with HIV/AIDS much more difficult than adults. The impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on children has been, and will continue to be, devastating. More than 15 million children have lost one or both parents to the AIDS epidemic[3], 12 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of these children are now in the care of their grandparents and other caregivers, or live in orphanages or on the streets. Without treatment, half of all babies infected with HIV die before their second birthday. With no voice to represent them, children are the silent victims of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Currently, MSF provides antiretroviral therapy (ART) to more than 7,000 children, amounting to 7% of the total patients on AIDS treatment in MSF projects worldwide.
MSF FACT SHEET
CHILDREN AND HIV/AIDS
FACT SHEET ■ MSF CAMPAIGN FOR ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL MEDICINES ■ CHILDREN & HIV/AIDS ■ JULY 2007