Deputy President David Mabuza will deliver a World Aids Day address in Saselamani village outside Malamulele in Limpopo.
About 300,000 children were infected with HIV in 2020, roughly one child every two minutes, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) said in a report on Monday.
In addition to those infected, another 120,000 children — a child every five minutes — died from Aids-related causes last year.
Unicef warned ahead of World Aids Day that a prolonged Covid-19 pandemic was deepening the inequalities that had driven the HIV epidemic, putting vulnerable children, adolescents, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers at increased risk of missing life-saving HIV prevention and treatment services.
“The HIV epidemic enters its fifth decade amid a global pandemic that has overloaded healthcare systems and constrained access to life-saving services. Meanwhile, rising poverty, mental health issues and abuse are increasing children and women’s risk of infection,” said Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore.
TimesLIVE
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