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Every 13 seconds in Sub-Saharan Africa, someone dies of AIDS.
Although the region contains only about 10% of the world's population, Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 70% of the world’s HIV+ population and over 90% of the world’s HIV+ children.
Currently, it is estimated that 2.3 million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa and another child is infected here every minute of every day.
Well over 90% of children with HIV / AIDS were infected by their mothers during pregnancy, labour and delivery, or while breastfeeding. This process is called Mother-to-Child Transmission (MTCT). Only 10% of HIV+ mothers worldwide have access to treatment to prevent MTCT of HIV. In some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, this rate is as low as 1%. Over 85% of HIV-infected pregnant women live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Without treatment, a child born with AIDS will not live to see their 5th birthday.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest treatment coverage for children with AIDS of any region in the world.
There is also a significant gap in the percentage of children and adults receiving treatment. Despite the recent scale-up in the provision of anti-retroviral medicines (ARVs) by large donors such as the UN and the United States government, the UN estimates that by the end of 2006 just 13% of children needing ARVs in this region had access to them. Most children are not even receiving cotrimoxazole or treatment for opportunistic infections. By contrast, 28% of adults in need had access to ARVs.
More than twelve million children in Sub-Saharan Africa have been orphaned by AIDS.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has put pressure on all areas of African life and shredded the fabric of African society. The reduced ability of caregivers to work, loss of income, medical fees and other care-related expenses, and funeral costs together push affected households deeper into poverty. This means it is difficult, if not impossible to pay for medicine.
*All statistical information is drawn from the 2006 UNAIDS update and Universal Access progress report. Both can be found online at www.unaids.org.
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