World Must Act To Address Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children To Meet MDGs, UNICEF Report Says

The world must take "urgent action" and address the impact of HIV/AIDS on children to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals by 2015, according to a UNICEF report released Monday, Xinhua News Agency reports. The report, titled "A Call to Action: Children, the Missing Face of AIDS," estimates that more than 1,800 children become HIV-positive daily and that 1,400 children under age 15 die from AIDS-related illness daily. According to the report, significant progress has been made in providing no-cost antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people, but children have been ignored. "We call upon every part of the global society to join in a campaign to support national efforts to ensure that this is the last generation of children that must bear the burden of HIV/AIDS," the report says, adding that world leaders -- especially leaders in sub-Saharan Africa -- must put the care, protection, support and treatment of children at the center of the HIV/AIDS agenda. Failure to meet the MDG of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS would negatively impact the chances of accomplishing other MDGs, including efforts to reduce poverty, hunger and child mortality; improve maternal health; and provide universal primary education, the report says (Xinhua News Agency, 7/10).