Mozambique: Poverty and Stigma Ensnare Children With AIDS

In Mozambique, an initiative for HIV patients sends trained activists to 2,112 children ages 7-17 who have or are affected by HIV. The activists make sure the children are attending school whenever possible and have good food and educational materials. About 50 of the children receive antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). The program is funded by the American branch of the nongovernmental organization Save the Children and implemented by Kindlimuka, an association for persons with HIV.

The program, and others like it, target only a small number of the children needing treatment in Mozambique, which has a 15.6 percent HIV prevalence. Ninety-one thousand children under age 15 have HIV. By June 2005, 500 children were registered on the government's free ARV treatment program. More than 60,000 children ages 14 and below are believed to need the drugs.

Of 97,000 people who died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2004, 17,500 were children under age five. Ninety of the average of 500 new HIV infections that occur daily are children who contract the virus from their mothers.

HIV-positive children who cannot access ARVs may receive an assistance package, including food, treatment for opportunistic infections and school materials from the UN World Food Program. A home-based care program coordinated by the Ministry of Health also serves some.

Officials urge local authorities to make sure eligible children are registered, but in areas without roads, health workers do no have access, noted Estrela Herculano of the Ministry of Women and Social Action: "Many families don't even know that their children are HIV-positive, even when they are sick. Most don't get tested."

Stigma presents another problem in caring for HIV-positive children. "We don't want to single out children who are sick with AIDS-related illnesses because of the stigma," Herculano said. "They might be discriminated against."

Back to other news for October 4, 2005