The world must take urgent action to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on children to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015, the UN Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF) has said.
UNICEF said failure to meet the MDG on HIV/AIDS, which is, “to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the disease” would adversely affect the world’s chances of progress on other MDGs.
This is contained in a UNICEF’s report titled” A call to action: Children, The missing face of AIDS,” made available to newsmen in Abuja, Monday.
It said the pandemic had continued to frustrate efforts to reduce extreme poverty, hunger, provision of universal primary education and reduction of child mortality and maternal health improvement.
UNICEF noted that HIV / AIDS was threatening children like never before, stating that over 1,800 children were being infected daily, while 1,400 others under 15 years, die of the pandemic also daily.
UNICEF said world leaders from both industrialised and developing countries had repeatedly made commitments to step up efforts to fight the spread of the pandemic.
It said significant progress had been made in charting the past and future course of the pandemic through the provision of free anti retro viral treatment to those infected, but lamented that children were being left out.
According to UNICEF, the world must act now, by taking urgent and decisive steps to ensure that the next generation of children were HIV/ AIDS free.
“We call upon every part of the global society to join in a campaign to support national efforts to ensure that this is the last generation of children that must bear the burden of HIV/AIDS,” UNICEF said.
World leaders especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, should provide a platform for child focused advocacy on global issues such as mobilising international resources to combat the pandemic, UNICEF said.
UNICEF also urged leaders to put the protection, care, support and treatment of children, adolescents and young people at the centre of the HIV/AIDS agenda.
