Among the predicted 40.8 million individuals living with HIV globally in 2024, 2.42 million were children aged 0–19, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund’s 2025 HIV projections study released recently.
According to the research, around 250 children died from AIDS-related causes and 712 children contracted HIV per day in 2024, mostly as a result of limited access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment programs.
One or both of the parents of about 13.8 million [10.9–17.7 million] children under the age of 18 have died of AIDS-related causes as of 2024
The pandemic has impacted millions more by increasing their risk of poverty, homelessness, school dropout, prejudice, and missed opportunities. Death and protracted disease are examples of these sufferings.
“90,000 [61,000-120,000] (or roughly 14 percent) of the estimated 630,000 [490,000-820,000] people who died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2024 were children under the age of 20.”
Around 120,000 children aged 0-14 were newly infected with HIV in 2024, increasing the total number of children aged 0-14 living with HIV to 1,380,000. Nearly 86% of these children reside in sub-Saharan Africa, according to worldwide trends.
One encouraging development on the global horizon is the sharp drop in new HIV infections among children ages 0–14, which has been around 62% since 2010 as a result of increased efforts to stop vertical HIV transmission.
At a slower pace of around 44%, the number of new HIV infections among teenagers (those between the ages of 15 and 19) has decreased.
According to estimates, AIDS-related causes claimed the lives of 90,000 [61,000–120,000] children and adolescents in 2024. Children under the age of ten accounted for almost 73% of these avoidable fatalities.
It also said that “the number of AIDS-related deaths among children aged 0-14 years has decreased by approximately 80% since its peak in 2003, while the number of AIDS-related deaths among those aged 15-19 years has only decreased by 38% since 2007.”
According to the research, the disease is still most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Southern Africa.
About 65% of individuals with HIV across all age groups and 86% of children and adolescents with HIV globally lived in sub-Saharan Africa in 2024.
Heterosexual relationships, including marriage and longer-term partnerships, as well as transactional and commercial sex, are the primary means of HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa.
Adolescent girls or young women having intercourse with older men is a typical way for HIV to spread in southern Africa, according to current data.
Additionally, if their moms are not receiving appropriate treatment or are kept in care, babies born to mothers with HIV are at risk of contracting the virus.
People who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, and sex workers are disproportionately affected by HIV in the majority of other parts of the globe.
However, the research noted that the pandemic is changing and that global transmission patterns are shifting.
According to the report, HIV epidemics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are increasingly characterized by considerable sexual transmission, while before they were mostly characterized by transmission among drug injectors.
Additionally, it said that HIV is increasingly being spread among heterosexual couples in several regions of Asia.
For a long time, injecting drug users, prostitutes and their customers, and men who have sex with men have been the main targets of the HIV pandemic in Asia.
The research emphasized that HIV infections are now gradually moving into lower-risk groups by way of sexual partners of individuals who are most at risk.
