DILI, 3 december 2021 (TATOLI)- National Commission for the Prevention of HIV-Aids in Timor Leste (NCPTL) registered 13% or 17 children in Timor-Leste infected with HIV-AIDS by 2021.
“The children are 0-5 years of age and most are detected in Dili Municipality,” NCPTL Executive Secretary, Atanasio de Jesus. informed Tatoli during the interview at his office in Luro-Mata, 3 november, this Friday.
However, de Jesus considers 13% is a low figure compared to other countries.
According to de Jesus, the virus is transmitted from mothers to their children otherwise it can also be transmitted through injection and blood donation.
“HIV can be definitively diagnosed by Virologic testing and blood testing in most non-breastfed infants however people with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex,” said.
The National Commission of Prevention of HIV has conducted antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the mother: “ART involves taking a combination of HIV medicines for the prevention,”
de Jesus said, to avoid young people from being infected with HIV/AIDS, require further counseling from parents and teachers regarding the disease.
Following the recent report cited from UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), at least 300,000 children in the world are newly infected with HIV or a child be infected with HIV at least two minutes by 2020.
Another 120,000 children died of AIDS-related causes during the same period, or one child every five minutes.
Worryingly, 2 in 5 children living with HIV worldwide are unaware of their status, and more than half of children with HIV are receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART). Several barriers to adequate access to HIV services are longstanding and common, including discrimination and gender inequality.
HIV testing of infants in high-burden countries declined by 50 to 70 percent, with the initiation of a new treatment for children under 14 years of age falling by as much as 25 up to 50 percent. Lockdowns have contributed to rising infection rates due to spikes in gender-based violence, limited access to advanced care, and running out of key commodities.
Global ART coverage for children is far behind pregnant women (85 percent) and adults (74 percent).
The highest percentage of children receiving ART treatment was in South Asia (>95 percent), followed by the Middle East and North Africa (77 percent), East Asia and the Pacific (59 percent), East and South Africa (57 percent). percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (51 percent), and West and Central Africa (36 percent).
In additional 2020 data included in the report, 150,000 children aged 0-9 were newly infected with HIV, bringing the number of children in this age group living with HIV to 1.03 million. 150,000 adolescents aged 10-19 years were newly infected with HIV, bringing the number of adolescents living with HIV to 1.75 million.
120,000 girls are newly infected with HIV, compared to 35,000 boys. 120,000 children and adolescents die from AIDS-related causes; 86,000 ages 0-9 years and 32,000 ages 10-19.
In East and South Africa, annual new infections among adolescents decreased by 41 percent since 2010, while in the Middle East and North Africa, infections increased 4 percent over the same period. 15.4 million children lost one or both parents to AIDS-related causes last year. Three-quarters of these children, 11.5 million, are alive.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia B
