Saving lives: Children’s right to HIV and AIDS treatment

This Global Movement for Children (GMC) report makes a call to action on the right of children to receive treatment for HIV and AIDS. It argues that the human rights of children are severely threatened by HIV and AIDS – stigma and discrimination, economic insecurity and growing burdens of care on families and communities all increase the vulnerability of children. Children also find themselves taking on care giver roles, losing their childhood under the burden of HIV and AIDS. The invisibility of HIV-positive children dramatically increases their vulnerability. The report therefore calls for coordinated action and specific steps to be taken now to protect the rights of children infected with HIV and to invest in their future. These include:

• Develop and make available simple and affordable diagnostic tests;
• Increase research and development for child specific treatment;
• Improve health care systems of developing countries to improve drug delivery systems;
• Establish child-specific treatment targets;
• Develop and make available simple and affordable diagnostic tests for HIV in children;
• Increase research and development for child-specific treatment;
• Improve health-care systems in developing countries to improve drug delivery systems;
• Establish child-specific treatment targets.

The report also notes that few drugs are presently available in formulations that are both affordable and child-friendly. Meanwhile, the development of new drugs continues to focus mainly on adults.