- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's babies are left behind in AIDS fight says UNICEF
- Date: 10th October 2007
- Summary: (BN01) JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (OCTOBER 8, 2007) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) UNICEF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ANN VENEMAN SAYING: "There are a hundred thousand babies who are born every year with HIV/AIDS, one half of which die before the age of two. This is unacceptable and hopefully if everyone rallies together, we can address this AIDS epidemic here in South Africa."
- Embargoed: 25th October 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: South Africa
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Health,Social Services / Welfare
- Reuters ID: LVA5NVMLWJRU1GNPFOKPU4SVYITU
- Story Text: About 100,000 South African babies are born every year infected with HIV/AIDS and half will die before the age of two. But many are left behind in difficult struggle against the disease, says executive director of UNICEF .
About 100,000 South African babies are born every year infected with HIV/AIDS and half of them will die before the age of two. But many are left behind in the country's difficult struggle against the disease, a senior UN official said on Tuesday.
"There are a hundred thousand babies who are born every year with HIV/AIDS, one half of which die before the age of two. This is unacceptable and hopefully if everyone rallies together, we can address this AIDS epidemic here in South Africa," Ann Veneman, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), told Reuters in an interview.
South Africa is in the epicentre of the global AIDS epidemic. But AIDS activists accuse the government of dragging its feet as the disease ravages millions of South Africans.
Veneman called on the government and community leaders to end what she called a state of denial and recognise the magnitude of the problem.
Children are the most vulnerable and only a small number get adequate treatment -- 10 to 15 percent. That is a slight improvement over the five-percent figure two years ago, when UNICEF launched an initiative designed to "put the missing face of the child on the AIDS pandemic,," said Veneman.
"There are so many people that are impacted by this disease that children really have been miserably left out, they are missing treatment because only about 5% of children two years ago who were in need of treatment, were getting treatment," she said.
Veneman noted some progress on a four-day visit to South Africa, where she discussed efforts to ease the suffering with Nelson Mandela, who has his own AIDS charity, as well as pregnant women and mothers infected with HIV/AIDS.
She said death statistics were still astonishing. An estimated 12 percent of the 47 million population haave HIV.
"If there's not a continued effort to try to educate people, to try to address this issue in the country, I mean, we are still seeing very high infection rates, I think you continue to see infection and death, as I said, it is estimated that there about 500 000 new infections a year, about 400 000 per year, I mean, I think that really the issue of prevention and treatment is really not keeping up with the number of new infections and the number of new deaths," said Veneman.
South African officials, including President Thabo Mbeki, have infuriated AIDS activists by questioning accepted AIDS science and pushing unproven treatments.
The South African government was reluctant convert to anti-retroviral medications (ARVs) which are credited with drastically reducing AIDS deaths. But Mbeki's government has changed course, making ARVs a pillar of its new strategic plan to fight HIV/AIDS.
It envisions a targeted five-fold increase in the number of HIV-positive people accessing ARVs by 2011. Some 700,000 needy South Africans currently cannot get the medications. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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