what's new? Revised version of the handbook available - 2006-08-21 17:02:17 The revised version (July 06) of the Paediatric HIV/AIDS handbook available in both English and French. ...|read on » Revised version of the handbook available - 2006-08-21 17:02:17

Overview:

ANECCA (African network for Care of Children Affected by HIV/AIDS) was established in the year 2001 in response to the growing recognition that in Africa, the needs of children affected by HIV/AIDS had largely been neglected.

To address this problem, ANECCA brings together clinicians and social scientists committed to finding ways of improving the quality of clinical and non-clinical care of children affected by HIV/AIDS, in the Africa region. The Network efforts are targeted at tapping into existing local resources to increase access to, and improving the quality of care provided to HIV affected children in Africa.

The Issues:

Over 75% of children living with HIV/AIDS in the world are in Sub Saharan Africa. With coverage of services for prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV still very inadequate in most countries in the region (less than 5% of pregnant women have access to these services), the numbers of HIV-infected children in Sub Saharan Africa continue to grow.

Infants and young children face an unacceptably high burden of HIV-related morbidity and mortality. Over 50% of HIV infected children currently die before their 2 nd birthday. 630,000 children aged less than 15 years of age acquired HIV infection during 2004, the majority during the prenatal period. By the end of 2006, more than 300,000 of these children will have died.

The majority of infected/affected children in Africa have no access to care, treatment and support, including Anti-retroviral therapy (ART), in spite of concerted global efforts to enable all persons living with HIV/AIDS access ART.