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25 Million by 2010, Report Says |
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Kaiser HIV/AIDS Daily Report
 The number of children in the developing world who have been orphaned because of the AIDS-related death of at least one parent will nearly double by 2010, from 13.4 million to 25.3 million, according to a report released yesterday at the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, the Washington Post reports.
The report, titled Children on the Brink 2002, was produced by U.S. Agency for International Development, UNICEF and UNAIDS (Brown, Washington Post, 7/11). Since 1991, the number of children who have lost at least one parent to AIDS has "skyrocketed" from one million to the current 13.4 million, according to the Los Angeles Times (Maugh, Los Angeles Times, 7/11). Overall, 12% of the 108 million orphans in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean lost a parent to AIDS-related causes. That figure is expected to jump to 24% by 2010, researchers say. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the epidemic, nearly 33% of all children who have lost a parent did so to AIDS-related causes, with researchers projecting that this figure will increase to 50% by 2010 (Washington Post, 7/11). Researchers noted that the number of children worldwide who are orphaned due to AIDS-related causes could be even higher because the statistics did not account for India, which has the second-largest number of people with HIV in the world. According to the report, if it were not for AIDS, the number of orphans would be dropping in Africa. In fact, the overall number of orphans worldwide is expected to remain stable for the next eight years, but the proportion of those who lost a parent to AIDS-related causes will increase (Altman, New York Times, 7/11). Anne Peterson, an official with USAID, said that "[e]ven if by some miracle the spread of the AIDS virus stopped today, the number of [AIDS-related] orphans would still rise for a decade," because of the lag between when a person contracts HIV and when he or she dies from AIDS-related complications (Washington Post, 7/11). The Effects UNAIDS Director Dr. Peter Piot, calling the study "one of the most shocking reports released at this conference," said it signifies that the "very fabric of society is disappearing with family structures that are crumbling." Because of high poverty rates and other problems in the developing world, a child who loses even one parent is significantly less capable of surviving, the Los Angeles Times reports (Los Angeles Times, 7/11). The loss of a parent can force the extended family to take on the responsibility of raising the child, thereby lowering income and possibly driving the family into poverty, which in turn often forces a child to drop out of school in order to work to make money. In addition, the loss of working-age adults to AIDS-related causes has decreased agricultural production in many places, affecting children's economic and nutritional needs (Washington Post, 7/11). According to Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, the "orphan crisis" is not severe enough to begin recommending international adoptions, and the report did not recommend orphanages as an "appropriate first-line response" to the crisis (New York Times, 7/11). Instead, U.N. officials said they are trying to help by promoting "community involvement" to keep orphans in school (Wall Street Journal, 7/11). New United Nations Foundation Advertising Campaign The United Nations Foundation yesterday at the conference unveiled a new advertising campaign aimed at increasing Americans' donations to the group's anti-AIDS efforts, Reuters Health reports (Pincock, Reuters Health, 7/10). The campaign, which is titled "Apathy is Lethal," focuses primarily on the plight of AIDS orphans around the world (United Nations Foundation release, 7/10).
This summary is from the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/hiv provided by kaisernetwork.org, a free health policy news summary and webcasting service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org by National Journal Group Inc. © 2001 by National Journal Group Inc. and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved |
