Kathmandu, April 17:

A report released today said only 11 per cent of the HIV-Positive pregnant mothers in the middle and low income countries receive anti-retroviral drugs, which help them prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

The report ‘Towards universal access: scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector,’ was prepared jointly by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

A statement issued by the WHO here today said that although access to antiretroviral therapy has increased in the middle and low income countries, the efforts to scale up the access are insufficient.

The global coverage of HIV testing and counselling remains unsatisfactorily, as does coverage of prevention and treatment interventions for injecting drug users, states the report.

The global goal of “universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support” for HIV has to be achieved by 2010.

“The combined efforts of donors, affected nations, UN agencies and public health authorities are providing substantial ongoing progress in access to HIV services,” said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO, adding: “Yet, in many ways we are still at the beginning of this commitment. We need ambitious national programmes, much greater global mobilisation, and increased accountability if we are going to succeed.”

The report shows that countries in every region of the world are making substantial progress in increasing access to HIV treatment.

Funding provided by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was supporting 1.265 million individuals receiving treatment by the end of 2006. The prices of most first-line ARVs decreased by between 37 per cent and 53 per cent in low and middle-income countries from 2003 to 2006, and by between 10 per cent and 20 per cent from 2005 to 2006.

The number of children receiving treatment increased by 50 per cent in the past year, but from a very low base. In December 2006, only about 115,500 (15 per cent) children of the 780,000 estimated to be in need of HIV treatment had access to treatment.

“Children continue to be the missing face of the AIDS pandemic with too many children still missing out on life-saving treatment and access to other essential services,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman.