Brave Girl Alters Perceptions of HIV+ Children. 05/08/08

By Sapa-AP Published on IOL HIV AIDS

August 5, 2008

Keren Dunaway-Gonzalez was five when her parents used drawings to explain to her that they both had the HI virus - and so did she.

Now the 12-year-old is one of the most prominent Aids activists in Latin America - a rarity in a region where few children are willing to tell their classmates they have HIV for fear of rejection. She edits a children's magazine on the virus.

"The boys and girls who live with HIV are here and we are growing up with many goals," Keren said at the opening of an international Aids conference, where she shared the stage with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"We want to be artists, teachers, doctors - even get married and have kids... but achieving these goals will only be possible when we receive the attention we need, when we are guaranteed the medicines we need and when we are accepted in schools."

Taking several deep breaths to overcome stage jitters, Keren delivered what was clearly the star speech of the conference's inauguration: the audience repeatedly interrupted her brief, but moving words with loud applause and whistles, and followed her discourse with a standing ovation that lasted well after she left the stage.

In an interview before the conference, Keren talked matter-of-factly about the virus she has had since birth, flashing a dimpled smile and exposing a row of braces.

"It's like a little ball that has little dots, and is inside me, sort of swimming inside me," she said.

Keren's openness about her HIV-status comes as the virus's victims grow increasingly younger.

Worldwide, people aged 15-24 accounted for 45 percent of people infected with HIV in 2007, according to a 2008 UN Aids report.

In Latin America, 55 000 of the nearly two-million people with the virus were under 15, the vast majority of them infected by their mothers.

Only 36 percent of pregnant women in the region receive medicine to prevent transmission, although that is an increase of 26 percent since 2004.

And while more than 60 percent of the adults with HIV receive antiretroviral drugs in Latin America, only about one-third of children do.

Experts say less research and funding has been dedicated to medicine for HIV-positive children, who require smaller doses and additional medication to offset the aggressiveness of antiretrovirals.

Even so, children born with HIV are increasingly looking forward to long lives.

"There's a whole new generation of young people born with HIV who are reaching adulthood. It presents very interesting challenges," said Nils Katsberg, the United Nation's Children's Fund (Unicef) director of Latin America and the Caribbean.

"In this stage of life, when we are getting to know our bodies and experiencing new feelings, when we get butterflies in our stomachs, it is necessary to be able to count on the right information about our sexuality and the changes that are happening to our bodies," Keren said. - Sapa-AP