LAGOS, Nov 6 (AFP) - The United Nations children's agency was set Tuesday to launch a major campaign to protect children against the AIDS virus in Nigeria, which has the third highest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the world.
"Globally every minute, a child under the age of 15 dies because AIDS," UNICEF said in a statement issued here Sunday.
"More than 600,000 infants are born with HIV every year. Of this number, 300,000 will not reach their fifth birthday," the statement said.
"With 3.5 million persons living with AIDS, of which thousands are children, Nigeria has the third highest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the world," it added.
"In Nigeria, about 1.8 million children are also orphans due to AIDS and receive little support."
The agency said the world's children were paying a disproportionately high price for the HIV pandemic.
They still obtained only a tiny fraction of the resources dedicated to fight AIDS, with less than five percent of HIV-positive children throughout the world receiving access to life-preserving pediatric drugs.
"Less than 10 percent of children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS receive outside support," the document said. "And less than 10 percent of women receive services to prevent the transmission of HIV to their babies."
The Nigerian cmapaign is part of a global launch that took place at UN headquarters in New York on October 25.
The issue of children and AIDS will also be a major theme at a summit dealing with AIDS to be held between December 1 amd 9 in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
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