More than nine out of 10 children affected by HIV and AIDS

More than nine out of 10 children affected by HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa live with a surviving parent, sibling or other relative. These families, most of whom receive no external assistance, are in urgent need of support, the report notes.

The report notes that were it not for AIDS, the number of orphans worldwide would be falling, thanks to better healthcare and improved nutrition standards.

In Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, other regions covered by the Unicef report, orphan numbers have dropped by around a tenth since 1990.

While HIV prevalence remains low, absolute numbers of orphaned children are much higher in Asia, which has almost four times more children. In 2003, there were 87.6 million orphans in Asia, double sub-Saharan Africa’s 43.4 million.

Although the proportion of those orphaned due to AIDS in Asia is likely to remain small, the authors warn that even a slight upward trends in prevalence in mega-population countries like China, India or Indonesia could lead to much greater numbers of AIDS orphans.

“With 60% of the world’s population, Asia could soon be faced with a serious orphan crisis unless it takes urgent steps to stop the epidemic in its tracks,” says Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS. “To avoid having millions more children becoming orphaned due to AIDS, countries must do everything they can to prevent people from becoming newly infected in the first place.”

The global AIDS meet being held in Bangkok, Thailand, has focused on money, improving universal access to life-prolonging drugs and wrangling over whether abstinence or condoms is the best way to prevent new infections. Children’s activists argue that the plight of orphans is not getting the attention it deserves within the overall AIDS effort.

Activists and officials at the conference also called for increased funding to help all orphans, who are more vulnerable than other children to HIV because they often do not get the education they need to help prevent the disease.

“In some ways, orphans are one of the orphaned issues at this conference. What’s left in the wake of the AIDS pandemic is these kids,” says Dr Joanne Carter, legislative director of RESULTS, an international anti-hunger and anti-poverty group.