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Paris conference to spotlight urgent needs of children affected by HIV/AIDS

© UNICEF/HQ05-0865/Noorani
A child holds a dose antiretroviral drugs at a UNICEF-supported youth centre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti that provides food, shelter, medicine and psycho-social care for children affected by HIV/AIDS.

By Kun Li

NEW YORK, USA, 13 June 2006 – Twenty-five years of the AIDS pandemic have redefined the very meaning of childhood. On 15-16 June, a special ‘Childhood and AIDS’ conference in Paris, France will highlight the urgent need to help millions of children who have been left vulnerable by this worldwide catastrophe.

"One thousand children die everyday because of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses, only 1 in 10 children has access to paediatric treatment, more than 15 million children are orphaned because of AIDS, and yet children are the missing face of AIDS," said Rima Salah, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, who will speak at the conference.

Every day, about 1,800 children become infected with HIV, most from mother-to-child transmission. Poor access to antiretroviral treatment has resulted in an estimated 380,000 children dying every year from AIDS-related illnesses.

At the Childhood and AIDS conference, part of the UNITE FOR CHILDREN  UNITED AGAINST AIDS campaign, UNICEF will be joined by a coalition of public- and private-sector organizations involved in HIV/AIDS policy and planning – including the French Development Agency, the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis, the Network for Therapeutic Solidarity in Hospitals and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"This meeting in France is really a response to our campaign. This meeting mobilizes all countries, but most importantly French-speaking countries where AIDS is really rampant, like West and Central Africa," said Ms. Salah.

Young people and experts

With a goal of reaching the world’s conscience and making concrete plans of action, conference delegates will discuss how to:

Improve treatment and care for children living with the HIV
Prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus
Provide more support for children made vulnerable by AIDS.

Jamaican youth activist Kerrel McKay, who helped launched the global AIDS campaign, will be on hand at the Paris conference to discuss her experiences and ideas, along with other young people and some 360 experts, many of them from sub-Saharan African nations hit hard by AIDS.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Médecins Sans Frontières Bernard Kouchner, will also make presentations at the two-day meeting.

Unite for Children
Unite against AIDS

| unicef.org

VIDEO

13 June 2006:
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah, who wll be speaking at the ‘Childhood and AIDS’ conference, explains how children are the missing face of the AIDS pandemic.
VIDEO  high | low

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