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Babies die needlessly due to lack of early diagnosis, treatment of AIDS – UN

Babies die needlessly due to lack of early diagnosis, treatment of AIDS – UN

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Many infants are dying unnecessarily worldwide because they are not being tested early enough for HIV and not receiving treatment if they have the virus, a new United Nations-backed video is warning.

Many infants are dying unnecessarily worldwide because they are not being tested early enough for HIV and not receiving treatment if they have the virus, a new United Nations-backed video is warning.

Without treatment, half of all HIV-positive babies will not live to see their second birthday, while one-third of them will not even make it to one year of age.

The video, entitled “Loud and Clear,” was launched by the Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS, a campaign launched in 2005 by the UN and its partners.

Research has demonstrated that testing newborns at six weeks of age and beginning treatment by 12 weeks will result in a 75 per cent drop in infant mortality due to AIDS.

But a report published last year by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) found that in 2007, only 8 per cent of children born to HIV-positive mothers were tested before they were two months old.

Despite progress made in recent years in scaling up access to care, treatment and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, far too few pregnant women in the developing world know their HIV status, with too few being tested and treated.

“Mothers should be able to access the tests and drugs necessary to ensure they can protect their babies and themselves,” said Doreen Mulenga, UNICEF’s Senior Advisor on HIV and AIDS.

Children suffer greatly from the virus, with UNAIDS and WHO estimates indicating that in 2007, 1,000 young people under the age of 15 were infected daily and 270,000 – most under five years of age – died.