U.N. Launches AIDS Campaign

The United Nations is launching a global campaign to combat the rising threat of AIDS against children, nearly 1,800 of whom are infected with HIV every day.
Every minute a child under the age of 15 dies as a result of AIDS, the report said. Children are the "invisible face" of AIDS and are missing out on the help that is going to adults, Ann Veneman, UNICEF's executive director, said Monday.
The campaign's message is simple: AIDS is a growing threat to children and if serious action isn't taken immediately the world will not achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the AIDS pandemic by 2015.
Peter McDermott, chief of the HIV/AIDS division at the U.N. Children's Fund, said the campaign has set international goals, and UNICEF will work with UNAIDS, voluntary organizations, the private sector and governments to achieve them
By 2010, the campaign also aims to provide support for 12 million of the 15 million AIDS orphans, McDermott said.
A global campaign is essential to work toward an AIDS-free generation where not one child will die of AIDS, be infected with the HIV virus, or lose a parent, teacher or friend.