Half a million children a year die of AIDS through lack of drugs

[Anil Tuladhar]

Over half a million children die from AIDS each year for want of drugs that cost as little as 2p a day, leading campaign groups have said.

Almost two and a half million children worldwide are infected with HIV, but over 95% of them are not treated for their condition and most will die before their fifth birthday, says the Global Movement for Children.

"The lack of treatment amounts to a death sentence for millions of children," said Dean Hirsch, chairman of this coalition of non-governmental organisations, which includes Oxfam and Unicef.

Mr Hirsch, who is also president of World Vision International, said that unless urgent steps were taken to boost care of children with AIDS in the developing world there would be no chance of meeting the key United Nations target of halting and reversing the global spread of HIV by 2015.