The Associated Press - Wednesday December 1, 1999
Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer

In a report, UNICEF and UNAIDS say the number of AIDS orphans is expected to rise to more than 13 million by the end of 2000. Already, 95 percent of those orphans are in sub-Saharan Africa.

"The skyrocketing number of AIDS orphans is - in addition to the loss of life caused by AIDS - putting a severe strain on traditional support systems in Africa," said UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy. "The grandparents who in so many cases are taking care of their orphaned grandchildren have limited resources."

Addressing a U.S. symposium today first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton urged that the orphans not be forgotten after World AIDS Day is over.

"This is a potential that can be unlocked and nurtured or wasted and ignored, depending on what we in this room and others in position of decision- making around the world choose to do," she said.

Eastern and southern Africa is home to 4.8 percent of the world's population yet has over 50 percent of the world's HIV-positive people and accounts for 60 percent of all lives claimed by AIDS, according to U.N. data.

In developing countries, children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS are at a higher risk of malnutrition, illness, abuse and sexual exploitation than children orphaned by other causes, the report says. Additionally, AIDS orphans in many parts of the world face stigma and discrimination, leaving them socially isolated and often deprived of basic services such as education, the report found.

Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, who released the report at a press conference today, said an effective vaccine for the virus was at least five years off "and I'm afraid much longer."

"Things will get worse before they get better," he said.

The U.N. report said that before AIDS approximately 2 percent of children in the developing world were orphaned, in 1997 the rates in some countries had risen to as high as 11 percent.

The report recommended that affected countries make a concerted effort to provide children with quality education so they can make sound decisions about their own relationships and sexuality and how to resist unsafe sex. Ahead of World AIDS Day, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for an end to the "conspiracy of silence" that surrounds AIDS, which he said contributes to widespread ignorance about the virus and discrimination toward its victims.

"And we must continue to battle the culture of shame," he said. "Hiding AIDS behind a curtain of stigma helps to spread it. Speaking out about AIDS helps slow it down."

In Johannesburg, South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said today that South Africans should abstain from early sexual activity, be faithful to their partners and use condoms.

Later in the day, condoms were to be dropped from a helicopter in the center of Pretoria, and an orphanage that cares for HIV positive babies was to hold a memorial service for dead orphans. Politicians also made door to door calls to raise awareness of the disease.

Mbeki's support of condoms contrasts starkly with leaders elsewhere in Africa. Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi said last week that the government could not endorse condom use because it would be morally wrong and give youth a license to practice casual sex.

The launch comes a day after 400 AIDS activists demonstrated in front of the White House to protest U.S. policies they say prevent poor countries from getting drugs needed to fight the disease. Ten were arrested.
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