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UN: 1000
Children Infected With HIV Daily
By AP
from 365gay.com, from the Web, January 17, 2007
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Geneva -- Despite progress in
preventing HIV transmission from pregnant mothers to their babies, more than
1,000 children around the world were infected with the disease each day in 2006,
according to a UN report.
Some sub-Saharan African countries -- such as Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa
and Rwanda -- greatly increased access to treatment for vulnerable mothers
between 2004 and 2005, said the report issued Tuesday by the New York-based UN
children's fund.
But worldwide, 410,000 to 660,000 children under the age of 15 were infected
with the disease last year -- mostly during or immediately after birth -- the
report said. Half of them will die of AIDS-related diseases within two
years if they do not receive appropriate medical treatment.
Only seven countries are on track to meet the target of providing access to
treatment for 80 per cent of women in need by 2010, UNICEF spokesman Patrick
McCormick said. These countries are Argentina, Brazil, Botswana, Jamaica,
Russia, Thailand and Ukraine.
Overall, only nine per cent of HIV-infected pregnant women in middle- to
low-income countries were receiving anti-retroviral drugs to reduce the risk of
mother-to-child transmission, the report said.
UNICEF said early diagnosis and treatment with cost-effective drugs were crucial
to achieving a turnaround in the AIDS epidemic, which claims about 2.9 million
lives worldwide each year, including some 380,000 children.
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