Approximately once every 100 seconds, a child or a young person aged below 20 was infected with HIV last year, reported the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), urging governments to protect, sustain and ramp-up the efforts to fight childhood HIV.

Prevention efforts and treatment for children continue to be among the lowest in the key affected populations. In the year 2019, a little less than half of children across the globe did not have access to life-saving treatment, stated UNICEF in a new report. Around 320,000 children and adolescents were newly infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and 110,000 children succumbed to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) last year. The COVID-19 pandemic has further deteriorated the inequalities in access to life-saving HIV services for children, adolescents and pregnant women, and there are serious concerns that nearly one-third of high HIV burden countries could experience COVID-19-related disruptions, as per UNICEF… (UN, November 25, 2020)