For every 100 seconds, a child or person under the age of 20 is infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in 2019, bringing the total number of children living with HIV to 2.8 million, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reported Wednesday.

The UNICEF said more than half of children worldwide had no access to life saving treatment, significantly lagging behind coverage for both mothers and all adults living with HIV in 2019.

Nearly 110,000 children died of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) last year, it added.

“Even as the world struggles in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, hundreds of thousands of children continue to suffer the ravages of the HIV epidemic,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement.

“There is still no HIV vaccine. Children are still getting infected at alarming rates, and they are still dying from AIDS. This was even before COVID-19 interrupted vital HIV treatment and prevention services putting countless more lives at risk,” Fore added.

The agency said in the months of April and May, coinciding with partial and full lockdowns, pediatric HIV treatment and viral load testing in children in some countries declined between 50 to 70 percent, and new treatment initiation fell by 25 to 50 percent.

It added that there are 1.3 million pregnant women living with HIV, which estimated that 82,000 children under the age of five were infected during pregnancy or birth and 68,000 were infected during breastfeeding.

The UNICEF urged all governments to protect, sustain, and accelerate progress in fighting childhood HIV by maintaining essential health services and strengthening health systems.

The agency underscored that the easing of control measures and the strategic targeting of children and pregnant mothers have successfully led to a rebound of services in recent months.

However, challenges remain, and the world is still far from achieving the global 2020 pediatric HIV targets, it added.