Ministers and representatives from 12 African countries have committed and laid out plans to end AIDS in children by 2030.
The countries pledged to ensure that all children with HIV have access to life-saving treatment and that mothers living with the disease have babies free from the virus.
In a joint statement after a meeting hosted by Tanzania, international partners pledged to support countries in delivering on those plans, which were issued at the first ministerial meeting of the Global Alliance to end AIDS in children.
"The Alliance will work to drive progress over the next seven years, to ensure that the 2030 target is met," the statement read.
The 12 countries with high HIV burdens who joined the alliance in the first phase are Angola, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Health CS Susan Nakhumicha used the forum to reaffirm Kenya's commitment to be at the forefront of ending HIV and AIDS infections among children by the year 2030.
The CS highlighted the government's drive in using digital technologies in ensuring access to treatment and care for all pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, providing access to universal testing and treatment for all children and adolescents living with HIV.
Nakhumicha further showcased best practices in ending stigma, ring-fencing budgets for ending AIDS among children and monitoring the progress of the same.
Currently, around the world, a child dies from AIDS-related causes every five minutes.
Only half (52%) of children living with HIV are on life-saving treatment, far behind adults of whom three-quarters (76%) are receiving antiretrovirals.
In 2021, children accounted for 15 per cent of all AIDS-related deaths despite the fact that only four per cent of the total number of people living with HIV are children.
Over that same period, 160,000 children were newly acquired HIV.
