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Botswana Children With HIV/AIDS Miss Treatment

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 09:01 CST

Botswana children with HIV/AIDS miss treatment

JOHANNESBURG, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Many children in Botswana with HIV/AIDS are not receiving the life-saving medicines they need, according to a UNICEF publication to be issued on Thursday.

"No child population age group has been spared from the epidemic," reads the report in the United Nations Children's Fund publication "Children's Monitor" for January and February.

"HIV prevalence rates have reached alarming rates in all of age groups," it notes. While 73 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women were receiving drugs to prevent them passing the infection to their unborn children, there were indications that the majority of children were infected while in the womb, and of increased child mortality in some age groups.

The average prevalence rate in children between the ages of 18 months and 18 years is given as six percent, with male and female rates consistently equal up to the age of 14 years.

"The majority of children in this cohort most likely acquired HIV perinatally. A dip in the prevalence in the 10-14 year age group, may be explained by a higher mortality in this age," the report reads.

A drop in prevalence over 2005 among 15-to-19-year-olds to 17.8 percent from 22.8 percent was not attributed in the report.

Among older teenagers, females were most infected as they confronted sexual intercourse. "Of note is the stark gender difference in the 15-19 group, where females are three times more likely to be infected than boys."

"Infection in this age group is more likely related to unprotected sex," the report reads.

By December 2005, only 4,997 children below the age of 12 years were receiving antiretroviral treatment.

Young people in Botswana still had a limited understanding of how HIV is transmitted and how to protect themselves from it.

Botswana has one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection. The preliminary findings of the 2004 Botswana AIDS Impact Survey indicated a 17.7 percent overall infection rate of the 1.7 million population, including 34.4 percent of the high economically active group of 25-to-49-year-olds.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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