WINDHOEK, Nov 24 (AFP) - Health officials from 22 countries in eastern and southern Africa are meeting in Windhoek from Monday to consider the plight of the more than 11 million children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
Worldwide, more than 13 million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. A massive 90 percent of them are concentrated in Africa south of the Sahara desert, where their misery is compounded by widespread lack of food.
The total number of AIDS orphans is expected to hit 25 million by 2015, according to the United Nations children's agency UNICEF.
A recent study by UNICEF, the US Agency for International Development and UN AIDS agency UNAIDS found 70 percent of the orphans in sub-Sharan Africa were grouped in just 12 countries.
Those agencies and several non-governmental organisations are co-hosting the five-day conference in Windhoek with the Namibian government.
They will assess which programmes -- for orphans and other vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and those living alone -- have worked and which initiatives should be developed and replicated.
"With HIV infection rates still rising and adults continuing to succumb to the disease, the problem will get worse," UNICEF warned.
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