Rwanda urges focus on children in HIV battle
19/06/2008
The Rwanda National Aids Control Commission (CNLS) has warned that not enough is being done to protect children from the threat posed by HIV/Aids.
An estimated 2.3 million children below the age of 15 were living with HIV in 2007 - nearly 90 per cent of whom reside in sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the world most afflicted by the pandemic.
The vast majority of such HIV cases arise from mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) during childbirth or breastfeeding - prompting despair among aid agencies given that the mode of infection is largely preventable.
Recent research has shown that comprehensive antiretroviral programmes centring on both mother and child can slash the MTCT rate from around 30 per cent to below one per cent.
However, while such protective measures are considered the norm in most western societies, in countries such as Rwanda thousands of newborns still contract the virus every year.
"If we don't focus on children we are going to lose the battle against HIV/Aids because these children will be the driving force of the epidemic in the next generation," Dr Agnes Binagwaho, executive secretary of the CNLS, told Rwanda's New Times.
"Let's put children at the centre of our intervention programmes, otherwise they won't forgive us. Children are still neglected today the same way Aids was neglected seven years ago."
Citing one such step in her country, she noted that a decentralised paediatric-HIV care and treatment programme in the capital Kigali is currently looking after some 500 vulnerable children.
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