Front Stage: Putting Children in the Spotlight in the Fight Against HIV and AIDS

Coalition Chair, Lisa Bohmer recently published an op-ed in the Huffington Post calling for a greater focus on treatment, prevention, care and support for children in the global fight against HIV and AIDS.

Front Stage: Putting Children in the Spotlight in the Fight Against HIV and AIDS

In Hollywood, adult actors are warned not to be upstaged by their child co-stars who nearly universally steal the show. When the setting is the global HIV and AIDS response, however, adults get the lion’s share of attention. Shining a brighter spotlight on children would better ensure a happy ending to this particular story. Without doing so, we risk this very vulnerable population being forgotten.

Although great progress has been made, advancements for children in the fight against HIV and AIDS globally continue to lag behind. While even one child suffering is unacceptable, consider that 150,000 children were newly infected with HIV in 2015. In addition, the virus is more virulent in the early stages of life and effective pediatric treatment formulations are significantly behind those developed for adults. Testing is woefully inadequate and only half of the 1.8 million children under the age of 15 living with HIV have access to treatment. The results are devastating – half of all children living with HIV will die before their second birthday.

The full article can be found here.