According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.3 million people living with HIV. Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 60 million people have been infected with HIV and nearly 30 million people have died of HIV-related causes. In 2009, around 370 000 [230 000–510 000] children were born with HIV, bringing to 2.5 million [1.6 million–3.4 million] the total number of children under 15 living with HIV. The total number of children aged 0–17 years who have lost their parents due to HIV
increased to 16.6 million [14.4 million–18.8 million] in 2009.
Unfortunately children suffer from HIV/AIDS in disproportion, as they are not only unwittingly infected, they are also loosing their parents in disproportion in many parts of the developing world. According to UNICEF 5 million young people in low- and middle-income countries around the world were living with HIV and an estimated 890,000 new infections occurred among young people aged 15-24.
To combat HIV/AIDS is one of the Millennium Development Goals, which all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to meet by the year 2015. The World AIDS Campaign (WAC) has chosen as its theme from 2005 to 2010: “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.”
With over 2 million HIV-positive children living around the world, we cannot turn our heads. However now looking back on the first year that I wrote about World AIDS Day three years ago, and the little change that has come in the numbers of children who are suffering. In 2007 I reported that some 2.3 million children where HIV positive, this year the numbers have decreased to 2.1, however I wonder if this drop is cause for celebration or concern. I find my self asking, ‘can we keep the promise?’, with only a year left in the World AIDS Campaign I am sadly doubtful.
The United States Department of State issued the following statement, which highlights the Obama administration’s, Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which is the primary program for providing HIV prevention, treatment and care to millions of people all over the world. The PEPFAR program, “is directly supporting life-saving antiretroviral treatment for more than 3.2 million men, women and children worldwide as of September 30, 2010, up from less than 2.5 million in 2009. In the coming years, the U.S. has committed to directly support more than four million people on treatment.” The report provides links to Secretary Clinton’s statement on World AIDS Day as well as an online event hosted by the White House.
The reality is that we are not winning this fight, however I am not one to give up hope, however we must work to ensure we increase awareness, access to healthacare and anti-viral’s, and fight for children across the globe as well as right here at home. Living in the nation’s capital it has become painful to see that the city carries with it a silent shame, as it carries almost crippling HIV/AIDS rates which top the country’s heartbreaking statistics. This is not “their” problem, it is “our” problem and we must unite for the sake of and all of our children have a chance at life.