UNAIDS plan to eliminate HIV infections among children

World leaders gathered in New York for the 2011 United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS have today launched a Global Plan that will make significant strides towards eliminating new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive.
“We believe that by 2015 children everywhere can be born free of HIV and that their mothers can remain healthy,” said Michel Sidibé. Executive Director of UNAIDS. “This new global plan is realistic, it is achievable and it is driven by the most affected countries.”
“Nearly every minute, a child is born with HIV. Working together, we can reverse this tide as we have done in the United States and they are very close to doing in Botswana,” said Ambassador , the United States Global AIDS Coordinator. “Preventing new HIV infections among children across the globe is truly a smart investment that saves lives and helps to give children a healthy start in life.”
Providing pregnant women living with HIV with antiretroviral prevention and treatment reduces the risk of a child being born with the virus to less than 5%—and keeps their mothers alive to raise them. Neither technical nor scientific barriers stand in the way of responding to this global call to action. The plan notes that what is needed is leadership, shared responsibility and concerted action among donor nations, recipient countries and the private sector to make an AIDS-free generation a reality.