UNICEF to Launch Campaign to Reduce HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe

UNICEF to launch campaign to reduce HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations AIDS representatives in Zimbabwe will launch a campaign next Tuesday aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS among children in the southern African country.

UNICEF said in a statement on Thursday that the campaign, to be held under the theme ‘Unite For Children, Unite Against AIDS,” would seek to prevent mother to child transmission of the virus, to provide paediatric treatment and to support children affected by AIDS.

“HIV/AIDS is now a children’s disease, robbing tens of millions of their future,” it said.

About 100 children were getting infected with HIV every day while a child was dying every 15 minutes in the country due to the pandemic, the organization said.

A total of 1,400 children under 15 die of AIDS related illnesses and more than 6,000 aged between 15 to 24 are newly infected with HIV every day across the world, it said.

Zimbabwe has a HIV prevalence rate of 21.3 percent with an estimated 1.8 million people living with the virus.

The country has an estimated 980,000 children who have been orphaned by the pandemic.