15 million and counting: growing numbers orphaned by AIDS

15 million and counting: growing numbers orphaned by AIDS

Fifteen million children under the age of 15 have been orphaned by AIDS till date, reversing the effects of better health and nutrition standards worldwide, says a new Unicef report

More than any other cause of death, AIDS is more likely to deprive children of both their parents. AIDS orphans face discrimination, on account of a parent dying from AIDS, abandonment, if relatives cannot or will not care for them, and the responsibility of caring for younger siblings. They may also be infected themselves. Deprived of guidance and education, they may be more vulnerable to violence and exploitation.

The facts

The proportion of children who lost parents due to AIDS has risen from just under 2% in 1990 to over 28% in 2003, says a new United Nations report. ‘Children on the Brink 2004’, a biennial report released by USAID, UNAIDS and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) , presents the latest statistics on the historical, current and projected numbers of children under the age of 18 who have been orphaned by AIDS and other causes.

Released on July 13 this year, to coincide with the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok from July 11 - 16, the report notes that in just two years, between 2001 and 2003, the global number of children orphaned due to AIDS rose from 11.5 million to 15 million -- the vast majority in Africa.

By 2010, sub-Saharan Africa will be home to an estimated 50 million orphaned children. W ith HIV infection rates rising and the disease taking 10 years to kill without treatment, a third of this number, or 18.4 million children, will have lost at least one parent to the disease, says the report.

“It is a tidal wave of children who have lost one or more of their parents,” says Unicef’s executive director Carol Bellamy. “Fifteen million globally, close to 12 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone,” she adds, saying, “It has the possibility of destabilising societies quite dramatically.”

In 11 of the 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, more than one in seven children are orphans. In five of those 11 countries, AIDS is the cause of parental death more than 50% of the time.