120,000 children and adolescents aged 0-19 years were living with HIV in 2017 in India

Approximately 120,000 children and adolescents aged 0-19 years were living with HIV in India in 2017, the highest number in South Asia, according to a UNICEF report that warned that "there is no such thing as HIV / AIDS. Approximately 80 adolescents will die of AIDS every day in the world by 2030. If progress in the prevention of transmission is not accelerated.

The report notes that South Asia has significantly reduced the risk of HIV and the vulnerability of children, adolescents, pregnant women and HIV-related mothers.

In India, about 120,000 children and adolescents aged 0-19 years were living with HIV in 2017. In Pakistan, they were 5,800, followed by Nepal (1,600) and Bangladesh (under 1,000), according to the UNICEF report released Thursday "Children, HIV and AIDS: the world in 2030."

In 2017, the estimated number of newly diagnosed HIV-positive children under the age of five years was 43% lower than the comparable estimate in 2010, down from 35% overall. [19659002] The estimated proportion of people aged 0 to 14 living with HIV who started life-saving antiretroviral therapy was 73% in 2017, an increase of almost 50 percentage points from 2010.

The report cautioned, however, that by 2030, about 80 adolescents will die of AIDS every day if "we do not accelerate progress in preventing transmission"

The report indicates that current trends indicate that AIDS-related deaths and new infections are slowing down, but that the trend is downward.

"The report clearly shows, without the shadow of a doubt, that the world is not on the right track to ending AIDS in children and adolescents from all walks of life. here 2030, "said UNICEF Chief Henrietta Fore. [19659002] The report reveals that more than half of children who die of AIDS will not be five years old. We noted that prevention and treatment efforts were still lacking, particularly with regard to "mother-to-child HIV transmission". Programs to treat the virus and prevent it from spreading to older children are nowhere else.

The number of infections from mother to child has decreased by about 40% over the last eight years, but girls are still responsible for it. According to current data, two-thirds of all HIV infections among adolescents and infection rates among older children are those that are retreating the most slowly.

In addition, the report cites the goal of reducing the number of HIV-infected children by 2030. to 1.4 million, while the number expected today is 1.9 million, shows that the world is behind about 500,000.

At present, three million people aged 19 or younger are infected with HIV in the world. Two million new infections could be prevented by 2030 if global goals are achieved – that is, adequate access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services, as well as at diagnosis

. and an inability to tackle the main factors of the epidemic. Many infected children and adolescents are unaware of their illness and, even when tested HIV positive, rarely adhere to appropriate treatment.

UNICEF's vision for an AIDS-free generation involves scaling up family-based testing to help identify children living with HIV. who have not been diagnosed, and the increased use of digital platforms to improve education on contraction and prevention of HIV and AIDS.