Global Facts

• People worldwide living with HIV/AIDS
• New infections                                            
• Children under 15 infected                               
• Deaths due to HIV/AIDS                            
• Deaths among women                              
• Deaths among children under 15 in               
• Children orphaned due to AIDS in         
• Orphans anticipated by                            

• 40 million
• 5 million
• 800,000
• 3 million
• 1.1 million
• 580,000
• 2.3 million
• 44 million

• Probability of a 15 year old dying from AIDS:
  • When current prevalence 15%
  • When current prevalence over 20%

• 33%
• 50%

Sub Saharan Africa

• Through 1999, a total of 16.3 million people died from HIV/AIDS worldwide; 13.7 million of these people lived in sub-Saharan Africa.

• In 1999, approximately 5.6 million people - mostly African - became infected with HIV.

• Ten people are infected with HIV every minute.

• 14,400 people are infected with HIV daily in Africa.

Approximately 25 million Africans living south of the Sahara are estimated to have HIV or AIDS. AIDS is now the leading killer in sub-Saharan Africa surpassing casualties from war.

A recent UN report forecasts that expected life spans in southern Africa will go from 59 years in the early 1990s to just 45 years by 2010. In many sub-Saharan countries life expectancy is projected to be even lower.

Some 6,000 men and women in sub-Saharan Africa will die of AIDS TODAY; for the children left behind, the real tragedy is just beginning.

Orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2000, 15.6 million children will have lost their mothers or both of their parents in 23 countries heavily affected by HIV/AIDS. Nineteen of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.

This number will increase to 22.9 million children by 2010, largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

According to UNICEF, children orphaned by AIDS are the largest and fastest growing group of children in "difficult circumstances" in sub-Saharan Africa.

Zambia has the highest proportion of orphaned children in the world, the United Nations reports, with 23% of children under 15 missing one or both parents. Furthermore, the number of parental deaths is expected to increase. Many of the children are taken in by extended families, with about 3/4 of households taking care of one or more orphans. However, high poverty levels have resulted in the abandonment of many of the children; there are more than 90,000 children now living on the streets of Lusaka, as compared to 35,000 in 1991.

Officials believe that HIV levels in the adult population will not begin to fall before 2010 and that orphan levels will not peak until a decade after that.

The HIV rate in urban areas of Zambia is expected to plateau at 28% and at 22% in rural areas.

Approximately one out of every four families in Uganda is now caring for an AIDS orphan.

Long Term Consequences

Orphans often suffer from many, if not all, of the following:

• increased malnutrition

• lack of health care including immunizations

• increased demands for labor

• lack of education and opportunities for schooling

• loss of inheritance, forced migration

• vagrancy

• crime

• homelessness

• increased risk and exposure to HIV infection.

It is estimated that on average, 16.2% of children under age 15 will be orphaned from all causes in 19 African countries by 2010.

In Botswana, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, this rate will be over 25%.

With orphans eventually comprising up to 1/3 of the population under age 15 in many countries, the HIV/AIDS pandemic will most likely create a generation which is disadvantaged, undereducated and less-than healthy.

Unfortunately, resources to address the African AIDS crisis are far below the $3 billion needed annually.

(Many of the facts above are courtesy of Justin Opoku of Save's Malawi Office)

Save the Children strategies:

• Strengthen the capacity of families to cope with their problems.

• Stimulate and strengthen community-based responses.

• Ensure that governments protect the most vulnerable children and provide essential services.

• Build the capacities of children to support themselves.

• Create an enabling environment for affected children and families.

• Monitor the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and families.

• Interventions to respond to AIDS orphaning must target all children affected by HIV/AIDS and not just those whose parents have been infected with or died from HIV/AIDS.

See the COPE program in more detail.

Save the Children
Save the Children COPE stories
Malawi Journal
Malawi Journal part 2
Malawi Journal part 3
Malawi Journal part 4
Malawi Journal part 5
Malawi Journal part 6
Mozambique Journal
Mozambique Journal part 2
Mozambique Journal part 3
Mick's reflections
HIV / AIDS in Africa
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 Last updated September 18, 2004

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