According to a report released Tuesday by the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS, efforts to help children affected by HIV/AIDS should focus more on families. The global response in the fight against HIV/AIDS has failed to meet the needs of millions of children affected by the deadly malady.

The report, called “Home Truths: Facing the Facts on Children, AIDS and Poverty,” was conducted by an independent alliance of researchers, activists and policymakers. The study analysed primarily the anti-AIDS efforts in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, which remains the epicentre of the global malady.

Factors such as extreme poverty, discrimination contribute to these poor outcomes of anti-AIDS campaigns. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 60 percent of children are living in extreme poverty.

Statistics showed that an estimated 1.7 million people were infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007. The region accounts for more than two thirds of all people living with HIV globally. Some fear that these efforts could be affected by the global financial crisis.

Despite all these economic problems, the world has the responsibility to “make sure that four million people who are on (HIV) treatment will continue to have treatment, six million more will have access to treatment…,” the newly appointed head of the U.N. agency UNAIDS said a speech earlier this month.

The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon noted during the 2008 World AIDS Day that although 3 million people are on antiretroviral therapy, people become infected at a faster rate than they can get into treatment.