By Solomon Asuquo
The Newly released data from UNICEF on July 10, 2025, paints a grim picture of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, with millions of children and adolescent girls still at high risk and a historic funding crisis threatening to roll back years of progress.
According to the 2025 HIV estimates, 2.42 million of the 40.8 million people living with HIV worldwide in 2024 were children aged 0–19. Alarming daily figures reveal that approximately 712 children were infected with HIV, and around 250 died from AIDS-related causes each day last year, largely due to inadequate access to prevention and treatment services.
The burden remains overwhelmingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounted for 61% of the 630,000 global AIDS-related deaths recorded in 2024. Adolescent girls and young women are especially vulnerable — over 210,000 new infections were recorded among girls aged 15–24 in the region, translating to nearly 570 new infections daily.
UNICEF warns that the situation is likely to worsen, as a deepening global funding crisis threatens to reverse hard-won gains and widen existing inequalities driving the epidemic.
“These figures are a wake-up call,” UNICEF stated. “They reflect not just a health emergency but a failure in equity, access, and investment.”
The organization emphasized the urgent need for equity-driven strategies that prioritize those most at risk — including children, adolescents, and pregnant women — through:
- Eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B.
- Closing treatment gaps for children and adolescents, with early diagnosis and optimized pediatric regimens.
- Expanding access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services for adolescent girls.
A new joint analysis by UNICEF and UNAIDS, expected in August 2025, will assess how the current financial trajectory could affect future child mortality and HIV infections. Early modeling predicts a significant rise in infections and deaths if investment gaps persist.
“Without immediate, targeted investment, the HIV epidemic among children and adolescents will spiral out of control,” UNICEF warned.
The call to action is clear: sustained global commitment, increased funding, and inclusive health systems are critical to protecting the world’s most vulnerable from a worsening epidemic.
For more information and data dashboards, visit data.unicef.org.
