Today is 2015 World Aids Day

Researchers said the unconventional case bolsters growing evidence in adults that starting treatment is essential immediately after HIV infection.

Only one-third of the 2.6 million children under the age of 15 living with HIV receive treatment. “We need to encourage people to test for HIV and Tuberculosis (TB)”.

McClure said at the same time, those who were HIV-negative must have access to the knowledge and means to help them to stay that way.

Titled Adolescents: Under the Radar in the Asia-Pacific AIDS Response and published by the Asia-Pacific Inter-Agency Task Team on Young Key Populations, which includes UNICEF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the report warned that the AIDS epidemic can not be ended as a public health threat by 2030 without tackling the issue of adolescents.

Girls in the region are disproportionately affected, accounting for seven of 10 new infections among people 15 to 19 years old, the study found.

Also notably, Cuba was certified as being free of mother to child transmission earlier in 2015, he said.

“We’ve collectively dropped the ball in the second decade of childhood”, said Craig McClure, the chief of UNICEF’s HIV and AIDS division.

South Africa will on 1 December join the rest of the world in marking World Aids Day.

Of the 37 million people with the virus, 26 million live in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 70 percent of new HIV infections. The World Health Organization says all people diagnosed as HIV positive should have immediate access to antiretroviral AIDS drugs, which hold the virus in check and give patients a good chance of a long and relatively healthy life.

Councillor Mary Markham, leader of Northampton Borough Council, said: “World AIDS Day is an important day to mark to remember those who have lost their fight and those that are living with HIV, as well as raising awareness of the organisations working to find a cure”.

She said since 2000, more than 1.3 million new infections among children had been averted through prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs in Africa, and the transmission rate fell from 38 percent to 15 percent.