Celebrating 25 Years of Collaboration to Eliminate Pediatric HIV with Johnson & Johnson

Over the past decade, tremendous progress has been made on significantly bringing down rates of HIV and AIDS. The number of new HIV infections among children per year has been cut in half since 2009, creating opportunities for healthier lives around the world. However, many people remain disproportionately affected by the disease, limited by access to prevention, care and treatment services. Every day, 600 children around the world are infected with HIV, 90% of which live in sub-Saharan Africa.

For 25 years, Johnson & Johnson has partnered with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) to eliminate mother to-child-transmission of HIV in more than 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Johnson & Johnson supports EGPAF in its ability to direct resources and fill key service delivery gaps to achieve maximum impact of health programs.

EGPAF has been a leader in the fight against the HIV and AIDS epidemic since its inception in 1988. Dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating AIDS-related deaths, EGPAF is present in more than 19 countries and supports activities including research and advocacy, capacity building of health care workers, strengthening roll-out of services targeting hard-to-reach populations, and improving monitoring and evaluation systems.

Since 2003, Johnson & Johnson and EGPAF have collaborated on the New Horizons Advancing Pediatric HIV Care initiative, a multi-sectoral partnership that aims to improve and scale-up HIV/AIDS treatment for children living with HIV through increased awareness and research, health systems strengthening and improved access to HIV/AIDS medicines. Since the start of the partnership, the number of new HIV infections in children occurring every day has been reduced from 1,700 to 600, globally.

On June 8, 2016, EGPAF joined forces from the public, private, and philanthropic sector, led by UNAIDS and the U.S. President’s Plan for Emergency Relief (PEPFAR), to launch the “Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free” initiative, which seeks to eliminate HIV/AIDS among children, adolescents and young women by 2020.

Johnson & Johnson’s ongoing collaboration with EGPAF demonstrates the potential of innovative partnerships to drive the number of new HIV infections to zero and eliminate the burden of pediatric HIV and AIDS around the world.

This content was originally published by Johnson & Johnson.