PATA’s plan to end AIDS in children once and for all
As part of a new global alliance launched by UNAIDS, UNICEF and the WHO to end Aids in children, the PATA 2022 Summit brings together over 500 frontline health providers from 12 African countries. The aim is to share knowledge on how to ensure no child is denied treatment and aims to prevent new infant HIV infections by 2030.
PATA, an action network of health providers and health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa, will host the PATA 2022 Summit from 21-23 November. Under the theme “Ending AIDS in Children, Adolescents and Young People – a Roadmap to 2030” and calling for action to Do it Right, Do it Together, Do it Now!, the summit will engage the frontline of healthcare with the newly formed Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children by 2030, which aims to secure political commitment and leadership to eliminate vertical transmission and end AIDS in children once and for all.
With UNAIDS data showing that only half (52%) of children living with HIV are on life-saving treatment, the stalling progress for children in the HIV response requires urgent attention.
UNAIDS, UNICEF, and WHO and strategic partners have brought together a new alliance to fix one of the most glaring disparities in the AIDS response and ensure no child living with HIV is denied treatment by the end of the decade and aims to prevent new infant HIV infections.
More than a decade since its inception, PATA’s network of more than 750 clinic teams in over 20 countries continues to grow, reaching thousands of health providers and providing a powerful platform for regional collaboration, capacity building and peer-to-peer exchange and learning in Africa. The PATA 2022 Summit will bring together more than 500 in-person and 600 virtual participants, including frontline health providers and community partners, from Angola, Cameroon, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. At the same time, the summit online sessions will reach a broader audience of key global experts, policy makers, networks of young people living with HIV, donors, and Ministry of Health representatives, who will be able to engage with frontline health providers via the online virtual linking and learning hub. This knowledge exchange platform allows homegrown solutions and frontline stories to be shared in the global effort to close the HIV treatment gap for children and adolescents.
PATA Executive Director, Luann Hatane, says, “The PATA 2022 Summit will provide an important convening of key providers on the frontline of the HIV response, across several high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The Summit platform offers a reality check against the everyday challenges, opportunities, progress, setbacks and lessons from our region where practical and real-world solutions are shared and discussed.”
She adds, “The unacceptable treatment coverage gap between children and adults cannot continue. We stand behind the Global Alliance and will leverage our network and all frontline service providers in solidarity and a joint commitment to be the generation who ends AIDS in children by 2030.”
We invite qualifying health providers to register for the PATA Summit 2022 by visiting https://patahub.org/pata-2022-summit/
