Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 26, 2002
The disease will rob millions more children of their parents over the next few years in the worst orphan crisis the world has ever seen, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy told a conference on orphans and vulnerable children in the Namibian capital, Windhoek.
UNICEF estimates some three million children are living with HIV/AIDS, and 13.4 million children under age 15--mostly in sub-Saharan Africa--have lost one or both parents to the disease.
"Their ranks will soon be swelled by millions of additional children who are living with sick and dying parents. By 2010, the total number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS is expected to nearly double, to 25 million," Bellamy said in a statement.
Delegates from 22 African countries are in Windhoek to discuss the region's response to what Bellamy called the largest orphan crisis in human history.
"Given that the global AIDS pandemic is still in its early stages, there can be no doubt that the growing number of children orphaned by AIDS means the world will see an explosion in the number of child prostitutes, children living on the streets and child domestic workers," Bellamy said.
She said the disease left AIDS orphans stigmatized, malnourished, uneducated and psychologically damaged.
"They are affected by actions over which they have no control and in which they had no part. They deal with the most trauma, face the most dangerous threats and have the least protections. And because of all this, they too are very likely to become HIV-positive," she added.
Governments at the UN General Assembly special session on AIDS in June 2001 vowed to implement national strategies by 2005 to help orphans and other children affected by the disease, but UNICEF says few countries appear to be on target.
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