HIV infection is rising in every region of the world, especially in east Asia and in eastern Europe/central Asia, according to the latest UNAIDS/WHO report. "Accountability -- the theme of this World AIDS Day -- requires every president and prime minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare that 'AIDS stops with me,'" U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since the incurable disease, which ravages the body's immune system, was first recognized in 1981. Almost 40 million people now live with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, with sub-Saharan Africa the hardest hit region.

In India, which has 5.7 million infected people, hundreds of HIV-positive protesters gathered in New Delhi demanding the government provide second-line AIDS drugs free to those who have developed resistance to first-line HIV medication.

Children suffer disproportionately from the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Children under the age of 15 account for nearly 1,800 new HIV infections and 1,400 deaths daily, while an estimated 25 million will have been orphaned by the virus by 2010 Gopa Kumar Nair, Save the Children's HIV and AIDS Adviser said "With this painfully slow progress to provide the necessary amount of aid to help children affected with HIV and AIDS we will be forever playing catch up as the pandemic continues to outpace the response. International donors must start being realistic about the amount of money they need to commit to provide affordable and appropriate treatment and help children orphaned by the virus."

Save the Children wants to see national Governments and the international community scale up universal access in order to ensure HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support will be properly targeted at children to help reverse the spread and curb the impact of the pandemic and to make the 2010 targets a reality.

CONTACT

For further information please contact Sophie Elmhirst on 0207 012 6403.

NOTES TO EDITORS

• It's currently estimated that 2.3 million children are living with HIV.
• Fewer than 5% of HIV-positive children are receiving life saving anti-retroviral drugs - that's a long way from universal access.
• At the G8 summit in 2005, the target was set that access to HIV prevention, treatment and care should be available for all by 2010.

KEY FACTS

• New infections 11,200 per day (UNAIDS 2006)
• Annual Deaths 2.9 million in 2005, (UNAIDS/WHO 2006)
• Deaths in sub-Saharan Africa 2 million in 2005 (UNAIDS 2006)
• Total deaths 25 million since 1981 (UNAIDS 2006)
• Total infections 65 million since 1981 (UNAIDS 2006)
• Country with highest infection rate 33.1 percent in Swaziland(UNAIDS 2006)
• Country with largest number of infections 5.2 million in India (UNAIDS 2006)
  
• Percentage of those who need ARV treatment and are receiving it 20 percent (WHO 2006)
  

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