Global statistics

The global picture

• As of December 2007, an estimated 33.2 million people worldwide were living with HIV.
  
• Of the estimated 2.5 million children under 15 living with HIV, nearly 90% live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  
• An estimated 2.1 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007. Of these, 420,000 were children under 15.
  
• In 2007, an estimated 2.1 million people died of AIDS-related causes. Approximately 290,000 of these were children under 15.

Country Examples

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT)

• Botswana, a country with a strong health-care system, has effectively integrated services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and for maternal, newborn and child health. Its coverage of antiretroviral prophylaxis for PMTCT is now the highest in Africa. In 2006, Botswana reported that only 7 per cent of infants born to HIV-positive mothers became infected with HIV, compared to 35-40 per cent before the PMTCT programme began.
  
• Evidence from North America and Europe shows that providing a mother with a full range of PMTCT services can reduce the risk of transmission to less than 2 per cent.
  
• Without PMTCT services, about 35 per cent of infants born to HIV-positive mothers will be infected.
  

Paediatric care and treatment of HIV-positive children

• In South Africa, mortality was reduced by 75 per cent in HIV-positive infants who were treated before they reached 12 weeks of age.
  
• In Zambia and Zimbabwe, the mother's HIV status is documented on a child card as a way of informing health workers of HIV infection so that the necessary care and support are given.
  
• Cambodia's national system for paediatric HIV services provides HIV care and treatment to around 70 per cent of children in need. The National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases coordinates a network of 150 HIV-testing facilities for children above the age of 18 months. Treatment is provided to children in need, with antiretroviral drugs and cotrimoxazole procured at prices negotiated by the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative.
  
• In low- and middle-income countries, 127,300 children received ART in 2006 compared with 75,000 in 2005, and increase of 70 per cent.
  
• Evidence shows that in the absence of treatment, up to 50 per cent of HIV-positive children die by their second birthday.
  

Preventing infection among adolescents and young people

• About 40 per cent of new infections occur among the group of young people aged 15-24.
  
• In Namibia, an extracurricular life skills-based intervention initiated in 1997 has trained more than 170,000 adolescents through a programme that is peer-led and focuses on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention.
  
• In many highly-affected countries, prevalence among young women aged 15-24 is often two to three times higher than prevalence among young men.
  
• Since 2000, the Islamic Republic of Iran has had nationwide Counselling Centres for Behavioural Diseases to reduce the level of risk among injecting drug users. In 2005, the Ministry of Health opened adolescent-friendly service centres in seven cities where former drug users, young men having sex with men and especially vulnerable adolescents are trained as peer educators to talk to young people about HIV risks.
  
• In India, focused peer outreach programmes, youth-friendly health services and communication activities in 43 high-prevalence districts are helping to reach adolescents, young people and especially girls at high risk.
  
• In Uzbekistan, under a UNICEF-supported programme for integrated health services provided within existing primary care clinics, staff are trained to care for adolescents and protect their confidentiality. The programme is the first in the country to link outreach services with clinics in order to reach adolescents most at risk of HIV infection.

Protecting and supporting children affected by AIDS

• In Zambia, a pilot cash transfer scheme which identifies extremely poor, AIDS-affected households and provides them with a monthly stipend has led to an increase in food consumption and a decline in the incidence of illness among children and adults.
  
• In 2007 the number of orphans due to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa was estimated at over 12 million.
  
• It is estimated that between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of children born to HIV-infected mothers in the Russian Federation are abandoned at birth to state institutions, including hospitals.