Thursday, December 01, 2011
No child should be born with HIV
Will EU leaders ensure to eliminate new HIV infections
among children by 2015?
Brussels. An estimated 33 million people around the
globe are living with HIV/AIDS. Only around half of them receive
treatment. In sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of the people living with HIV
are women and girls. Each year, HIV alone accounts for more than
61,000 maternal deaths[1] and
370,000 children become newly infected, almost all in low- and
middle-income countries. World AIDS Day 2011 marks 30 years of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic and commemorates those that have died due to the
world's most destructive disease. Yet, it is possible to reduce new
infections among children to zero and keep mothers alive, if
pregnant women living with HIV and their children have access to
quality life-saving drugs and treatment. Action for Global Health,
IPPFEN and ONE call on the European Union (EU) to develop a new
HIV/AIDS response framework to eliminate infections among children
and protect women.
This year, global leaders endorsed the 'Political
Declaration: Intensifying our Efforts to Eliminate HIV/AIDS'
and a 'Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV
infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers
alive'. The Declarations contain a set of ambitious targets
for 2015 including: 15 million people accessing antiretroviral
treatment, halving sexual transmission of HIV and transmission
among people who inject drugs, eliminating mother-to-child
transmission and commitment to an additional US$ 6 billion funding
by 2015. Although 2011 has been a year of promises and hope,
donor funding for HIV/AIDS declined by 10% between 2009 and
2010; this is the first time support has fallen in more
than a decade.
Arben Fetai of Stop Aids
Alliance outlines his concerns: "The EU is one of the
biggest contributors of the global HIV/AIDS response and has played
a key role in ensuring the adoption of the new targets. But the
situation does not look promising. There are few
indications that the EU will take on the leadership it
showed in the past decade."
Although annual AIDS-related deaths have decreased by 20% in the
last five years, young people and women remain particularly
prone to contracting the disease. Over 50 per cent of
those newly infected are between 15 and 24 years old. Today, 64% of
young people infected with HIV are women. Gender and poverty have a
crucial impact on a person's health. Worldwide, women have less
access to health care, health information, and have little command
over aspects of their own body. Adolescent girls are particularly
at risk.
"Young women tend to be at greater risk than young men for a
number of reasons - having sex early, having unprotected sex,
transactional sex and violent sex. They are also most likely to
care for their ill relatives", says Karen Schroh of Plan EU
Office. "We need to strengthen the position of
girls and young mothers, if we want to reduce new HIV
infections."
To sustain the gains of the last decade and meet the 2015
targets, Action for Global Health, IPPFEN and ONE call on
the EU to develop a new framework for its global
HIV/AIDS response that is aligned with the 2011
'Political Declaration' and the 'Global Plan towards
the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and
keeping their mothers alive'. This needs not only to include
economic and financial aspects, but the recognition of the
importance of gender equality and human rights aspect of the
HIV/AIDS response, putting in place steps which go beyond the mere
strengthening of health systems. Only in this way can we reach
'zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS
related deaths' - the theme of this year's World AIDS
Day.