Addressing and improving the continuum of care for HIV-affected children: challenges and solutions.

In 2011, Ambassador Eric Goosby of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and Michel Sidibe, the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIVand AIDS, announced a Global Plan for eliminating new HIV infections in children and keeping their mothers alive [1]. The elimination of maternal-to-child transmission (EMTCT) or Global Plan calls for three topline goals – decreasing new pediatric infections due to vertical transmission by 90%, halving maternal deaths, and halving pediatric deaths from HIV and AIDS by 2015 [1]. In June 2011, all United Nations member states committed to these targets. The Interagency Task Team, a 32-organization partnership coconvened by the United Nations Children’s Fund and WHO, is charged with coordinating technical support to countries, developing supportive guidance and tools and monitoring progress, with an emphasis on 22 countries that account for 90% of the total annual number of new HIV infections among children. This series of 11 articles addressing pediatric HIV care and treatment was created by the nearly 60 members of the Interagency Task Team Child Survival Working Group.