Children and Young People Missing in Regional Response to HIV/AIDS

The East Asia and Pacific Regional Consultation on Children and AIDS brought together over 200 delegates from government, civil society, United Nations agencies and donors to discuss actions needed to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS amongst children and young people. According to
a press release issued by UNICEF for this event, a lack of good quality and consistent data on children and young people greatly hinders the region’s response to epidemic.

“For the most part, children remain off the radar screen when we measure the risk and impact of HIV and AIDS”, said Anupama Rao Singh, Regional Director of UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific. “This is no longer acceptable. We have an opportunity now to change the status quo for children by vastly accelerating our response, and we must seize it.”
The press release proposes that prevention is the key to warding off a generalised epidemic across the region that would affect many more millions of children and that success in is contingent on aggressive efforts to combat pervasive stigma and discrimination and in overcoming a host of other barriers. These include religious and cultural taboos which deter parents and educators from addressing topics such as safe sex and condom use, limited financial resources for prevention, and inadequate information and education about the disease.

A survey amongst young people conducted by Save the Children in six countries in the region, revealed that while many children and young people have basic access to HIV/AIDS information, that information is often inadequate and ineffective. Further, many of the most vulnerable of children say that they do not have access HIV prevention services.