AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has raised concern over the disturbingly small number of HIV-positive children on treatment in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
Although the government's treatment plan aims to reach 53,000 people by March 2005, there is no target for children. A TAC survey of the province's largest hospitals showed that only 39 children were being treated.
TAC provincial organiser Sifiso Nkala told the UN new service PlusNews: "In most of these hospitals, paediatricians were not involved in the antiretroviral rollout, and children were therefore not part of the programme."
Nkala stressed the need for children to participate, as 50 percent of HIV-positive mothers were unable to prevent transmission of the virus to their children.
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