Children and HIV/AIDS: from research to policy and action in resource-limited settings

HIV/AIDS was in 2006 the leading cause of death worldwide for people aged 15 to 49 years. The pandemic is having a dramatic impact on child mortality, with 380,000 children who died of AIDS-related diseases [1]. The same year, it was estimated that 2.3 million children under the age of 15 years were living with the virus, mainly as a result of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) [1]. More than 90% of these children were living in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of children orphaned after their parent(s) died from AIDS is also rising dramatically, reaching 15.2 million children worldwide in 2005. More than five million children are currently living with HIV-related chronically ill family members and will become orphans unless appropriate care and treatment is provided [2]. Considerable progress has been achieved in industrialised countries towards the prevention of new paediatric HIV infections, the provision of adequate treatment to HIV-infected children, and the support to vulnerable children and orphans affected by HIV/AIDS. But for many children, especially in low-incomes countries (LINCs), adequate prevention, care and treatment still remains inaccessible. The aim of this article is to review the state of knowledge in the field of paediatric HIV/AIDS, to describe the research undertaken over the past decade, and to assess the level of implementation of research results, focusing mainly on the experience of African countries.