The UN Programme on HIV and AIDS, UNAIDS, on Monday said it would soon effect a 35 per cent reduction in the cost of HIV early infant diagnostic technologies in order to tackle the high mortality rate among children affected by the disease.

This assertion was contained in a statement issued by the UNAIDS’ executive director, Michel Sidibé, in New York.

Sidibé said the new access price was pegged at $9:40 per test which he said was much lower than what obtained in the past.

Sidibe noted that an agreement had already been reached with Roche Diagnostics which would serve as a step towards ending the obvious failure of the world to meet the treatment needs of children living with HIV.

“We now need to use this agreement to rapidly scale up diagnostic and treatment services for all children living with HIV in line with the 90-90-90 target,” the statement quoted Sidibé as saying.

The director added that in the process of bringing together global and regional partners, the initiative tagged ‘Diagnostics Access Initiative’ also called for improving laboratory capacity to ensure that all people living with HIV could be linked to effective, high-quality HIV treatment services.

He said that the initiative which was launched by UNAIDS in July 2014 involved partners such as, the Clinton Health Access Initiative Inc., the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a host of others.