Global HIV report alarms Archdiocese of Ndola

Global HIV report alarms Archdiocese of Ndola

By George Zulu

THE Catholic Archdiocese of Ndola has expressed alarm over the revelation that about 58,000 children aged between 0 and 14 in Zambia are living with HIV/AIDS with 14,000 of them not on treatment.

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report highlights that about 65,000 youths between 10 and 19 years were living with HIV in Zambia, while nearly one in every 10 people are not yet on treatment.

The report further states that 41,300 children between the age of 0 and 14 are currently receiving ART, but an estimated 14,000 in that age group remain untreated.

According the report approximately 600,000 AIDS orphans in Zambia have lost one or both parents to AIDS-related illness.

“New infections among children dropped significantly between 2010 and 2019, but we’re still seeing thousands of preventable infections each year. These children are not just numbers. They are in our homes, our churches, our communities. They are our future. And many of them are being left behind not because we lack the medicine, but because we have not yet aligned our political will, moral voice, and public health systems to fully protect them,” the report states.

Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) director Rev Fr Kelvin Bwalya has described the UNICEF 2025 Global HIV report statistics as “heartbreaking”.

“The UNICEF report makes it painfully clear: only 55 per cent of HIV positive children worldwide receive treatment. In Sub-Saharan Africa, which bears 86 per cent of the global burden, some regions, like West and Central Africa, have treatment coverage as low as 37 per cent. Zambia fares better than many neighbours but our children are still at risk. This is not just a health crisis. It is a justice crisis,” Fr Bwalya said.

He said the world had failed its own children, adding that Zambia was not an exception.

“Truth be told the world is failing its children in the fight against HIV and that Zambia is no exception. The report shows a groom future, a dead future. We need to do more,” he said.

‎Fr Bwalya said there was need to take urgent action to protect children from HIV/AIDS.

He said testing children for HIV should be the starting point for a focused early treatment.

Fr Bwalya said supporting and loving children with the virus should be an incentive towards treatment.

‎He said Government should also ensure that Mother to Child infection was prevented while advising the public to stop associating HIV with shame and fear.