Aids Orphans Report

14 July

Calgary Herald, The Record (Can.), Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province – More than three million children in the world lost one or both parents to AIDS between 2001 and 2003, but governments have largely overlooked the plight of these orphans, UN and U.S. officials said Tuesday. A focus on treatment and prevention of HIV in adults has left an "enormous gap" in funding for children orphaned by AIDS, who totaled 15 million worldwide by 2003, according to a report released by UN and U.S. agencies. "The orphan crisis is arguably the cruelest legacy of the AIDS pandemic," said Carol Bellamy, executive director of the UN Children's Fund, adding that the orphans are left vulnerable to discrimination, violence and exploitation. UNICEF co-authored the report along with the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

China Daily - The AIDS epidemic has robbed 15 million children of one or both parents and reversed a trend toward fewer orphans driven by better health and nutrition, a United Nations report said yesterday. With HIV infection rates rising and the incurable disease taking 10 years to kill without treatment, an estimated 18.4 million children will have lost at least one parent by 2010, according to the UNICEF report released at the 15th International AIDS Conference. "It is a tidal wave of children who have lost one or more of their parents," Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, the UN children's agency, said. "Fifteen million globally, close to 12 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone," she said. "It has the possibility of destabilizing societies quite dramatically."

The Guardian - America was yesterday accused by France of blackmailing developing countries into giving up their right to produce cheap drugs for Aids victims. French president, Jacques Chirac, said there existed a real problem of favorable trade deals being dangled before poor nations in return for those countries halting production of life-saving generic drugs.

Mr. Chirac, in his statement, also called for the US to put more money into the Global Fund for HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said he thought that the US contribution of $ 500m to the global fund should have been $ 1bn of the $ 15bn the Bush administration had pledged for Aids projects. Yesterday the UN said there would be 50 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010, of whom 18.4 million would have lost one or both parents to Aids. Yet it was a crisis that had been ignored. A report from UNICEF, the children's fund, revealed that from 2001 to 2003 the number of children worldwide orphaned by Aids rose from 11.5 million to 15 million. Most of the Aids orphans were in Africa, which has been hardest hit by the pandemic.

The Times (London) - Lydia Kayoyo became one of Uganda's estimated two million Aids orphans in 1989 when she was 12. Her father died first in April, her mother the following September. She was brought up by her grandmother, and considers herself very lucky. "We had someone to look after us and we were not infected," she says. A United Nations report released yesterday said that globally the number of children who have lost one or both parents to Aids had reached 15 million and would rise to 18.4 million by the end of the decade. The vast majority are in Africa. "It is a tidal wave of children who have lost one or more of their parents," Carol Bellamy, the executive director of the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, told the 15th International Aids Conference being held this week in Bangkok. "Fifteen million globally, close to 12 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone. The orphan crisis is arguably the cruelest legacy of this whole pandemic...and the worst could still be to come," she added. "Far too many will die."

Jamaica Gleaner - Only 700,000 AIDS orphans across the globe are receiving any type of support from their governments or non-government organizations, head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Dr. Peter Piot revealed yesterday. Speaking at the XV International AIDS Conference at a press conference to release the UNICEF publication, Children on the Brink 2004, Dr. Piot noted that this figure is less than five per cent of the 15 million children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. Calling the orphan crisis the "cruelest legacy of the AIDS epidemic", executive director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy echoed the view put forward by Dr. Piot. "The silence that surrounds children affected by HIV/AIDS and the inaction that results is morally reprehensible and unacceptable. If this situation is not addressed, and not addressed now with increased urgency, millions of children will continue to die, and tens of millions more will be further marginalized, stigmatized, malnourished, uneducated, and psychologically damaged," she stated.

Salt Lake Tribune - The World Health Organization said Tuesday the world has "failed miserably" in providing life-saving drugs to millions afflicted with HIV, while France accused the United States of bullying poor countries into ceding rights to make cheap generic HIV drugs. A U.S. official denied the French allegation at the International AIDS Conference as "nonsense," while meeting delegates lamented that only about 7 percent of the 6 million people in poor countries who need antiretroviral treatment are getting it.

Meanwhile, the head of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, told delegates on the third day of the conference that more than 3 million children in the world lost one or both parents to AIDS from 2001 to 2003 but governments have largely overlooked their plight. "The orphan crisis is arguably the cruelest legacy of the AIDS pandemic," Bellamy said, adding that the children are left vulnerable to discrimination, violence and exploitation.

Mail & Guardian (SA) - By 2010 more than one in five children in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe will be orphaned by Aids, a joint United Nations and United States report warned on Tuesday. "Children on the Brink 2004" is the fourth edition of this biennial report, based on surveys conducted by UNICEF, Unaids and Usaid. Alarmingly, the studies found that 20% of households with children in Southern Africa are taking care of one or more Aids orphans. Unicef's executive director, Carol Bellamy, told a press briefing in Bangkok, Thailand, this week that the number of Aids orphans worldwide has shot up from 11,5-million in 2001 to 15 million in 2003. "The worst may still be ahead of us - far too many [parents] will die," she warned.

IRIN - Between 2001 and 2003 some three million children worldwide lost one or both parents to AIDS-related illnesses, but UN and US officials say the plight of these orphans is being overlooked. A focus on treatment and prevention of HIV in adults has left an "enormous gap" in funding for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, according to a joint report by UNICEF, UNAIDS and USAID. The report, "Children On The Brink", estimated that US $10 billion a year would be needed to help HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children. In 2003 there were 15 million AIDS orphans globally.

UN News Centre - With the number of African AIDS orphans likely to reach nearly 17 million in six years, priority should now be given to providing the surviving parent free anti-retroviral drugs, a representative of UNICEF said today. Martin Mogwanja, the agency's top official in Uganda, was commenting on a new report, Children on the Brink 2004 - released by UNICEF, UNAIDS and USAID this week - predicting that by 2010 sub-Saharan Africa will be home to about 50 million orphaned children, a third of whom will have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Increasing the availability of anti-retroviral therapy would provide a "stronger and more forward-looking response" to the needs of all children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, Mr. Mogwanja said in Kampala, Uganda.

Miami Herald, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Pioneer-Press (MN), Sydney Morning Herald, Philadlephia Inquirer, Tallahassee Democrate, Charlotte Observer, Duluth News Tribune, Macon Telegraph, others - A generation ago, one in 10 of new AIDS patients in the United States was a woman. It's now one in four. Worldwide, women made up nearly half of the adults living with HIV/AIDS in 2003, up from 41 percent in 1997. Across the world, the problem is worst in Africa. In a UNAIDS study of six African countries, girls and women age 15-24 were 2.5 times more likely to be HIV infected than their male counterparts. Perhaps most tragically, the age of infection is getting younger. More than 11 million young people, ages 15-24, were living with HIV/AIDS in 2003, according to UNICEF and UNAIDS. Of those, 7.3 million were girls and women, 4.5 million, boys and men. "There is a widespread myth in Africa and parts of Asia that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS, which has resulted in an increased number of child rapes," says a report by the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

The Nation (Thailand) - About 40 youth activists yesterday staged a march to urge the United Nations to pay more attention to the role of youth in fighting HIV/Aids. Studies back up the youths' pronouncements. They show that when younger people have gotten involved in educating people about Aids, transmissions are often reduced, especially among their generation. Representatives from UNAids, UNICEF, UNFPA, and the International Aids Society received a letter from the youths. The youngsters demanded the creation of partnerships between youth organizations and international organizations working on the disease as they placed stickers reading 'Honorary Youth' on officials' shirts. On Monday afternoon, five youths staged a far-reaching presentation for Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's executive director, ranging from basic facts and figures on the world's HIV/Aids situation to original solutions to tackle the pandemic.

13 July

AFP - AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa will top 18 million by 2010, the UN and US warned Tuesday. The number of children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS will surge by more than 50 percent from the current 12.3 million in the region worst ravaged by the AIDS pandemic, according to a joint report by the United Nations AIDS agency, the children's agency UNICEF and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In sub-Saharan Africa, "since 2000, 3.8 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and by 2010, 18.4 million children -- more than one in three orphans -- will have lost parents to AIDS," stated the report titled "Children on the Brink 2004". "The orphan crisis is arguably the cruelest legacy of this whole pandemic," UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy told a briefing at the 15th and largest International AIDS Conference being held this week in Bangkok. "A tidal wave of orphaning" is taking place in parts of Africa and other regions, particularly Asia, could see similar trends in the next few years as HIV/AIDS seeps into huge populations there.

AP - More than 3 million children in the world lost one or both parents to AIDS between 2001 and 2003 but governments have largely overlooked the plight of these orphans, U.N. and U.S. officials said Tuesday. A focus on treatment and prevention of HIV in adults has left an "enormous gap" in funding for children orphaned by AIDS, who totaled 15 million worldwide by 2003, according to a report released by U.N. and U.S. agencies. The report defines orphans as children under 18 who lost at least one parent. "The orphan crisis is arguably the cruelest legacy of the AIDS pandemic," said Carol Bellamy, executive director of the U.N. Children's Fund, adding that the orphans are left vulnerable to discrimination, violence and exploitation. UNICEF co authored the report along with the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

AP, Palm Beach Post, Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ABC News, Billings Gazette, others - The World Health Organization said Tuesday the world has "failed miserably" in providing life-saving drugs to millions afflicted with HIV, while France accused the United States of bullying poor countries into ceding rights to make cheap generic HIV drugs. A U.S. official denied the French allegation at the International AIDS Conference as "nonsense," while meeting delegates lamented that only about 7 percent of the 6 million people in poor countries who need antiretroviral treatment are getting it. Meanwhile, the head of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, told delegates on the third day of the conference that more than 3 million children in the world lost one or both parents to AIDS from 2001 to 2003 but governments have largely overlooked their plight. "The orphan crisis is arguably the cruelest legacy of the AIDS pandemic," Bellamy said, adding that the children are left vulnerable to discrimination, violence and exploitation.

BBC - The scale of the Aids crisis has been highlighted in a report by UNICEF, which says that between 2001 and 2003 the number of children orphaned by Aids worldwide rose from 11.5 million to 15 million. The worst hit region is sub-Saharan Africa where nearly four million children have lost one or both parents to Aids since 2000 - by 2010 more than 18 million youngsters will have been orphaned. These numbers are so large they have the potential to undermine the stability of countries, UNICEF's executive director Carol Bellamy warned. "Unless society really is mobilized to take these children in to try and support them so that they become productive adults, you really are talking about the whole stability of societies being threatened," she said.

Reuters, MSNBC, China Daily, Yahoo News - The AIDS epidemic has robbed 15 million children of one or both parents and reversed a trend toward fewer orphans driven by better health and nutrition, a U.N. report said Tuesday. With HIV infection rates rising and the incurable disease taking 10 years to kill without treatment, an estimated 18.4 million children will have lost at least one parent by 2010, according to the UNICEF report released at the 15th International AIDS Conference. "It is a tidal wave of children who have lost one or more of their parents," Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, told Reuters. "Fifteen million globally, close to 12 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone," she said. "It has the possibility of destabilizing societies quite dramatically."

CBC (Canada) - Within six years, sub-Saharan Africa will be home to 18.4 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday. The report, co-written by the children's agency UNICEF and the US Agency for International Development and released at the Bangkok AIDS conference, warns that the situation will create a "tidal wave" of death affecting children worldwide unless urgent measures are taken to treat adults with the disease. Currently, 12.3 million children in the region most affected by the pandemic have lost one or both parents, says the report, called "Children on the Brink 2004." In sub Saharan Africa alone, more than 25 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, and more than 8,000 people die each day CBBC [BBC site for children]- At least 15 million children worldwide have lost a mum or dad to Aids. Children's charity UNICEF has warned that this number could rise to 25 million by 2010. Many are orphans who don't get to go to school, have to look after brothers and sisters and are taken advantage of because they are vulnerable. Health bosses are meeting to discuss the world Aids problem but UNICEF says not enough is being done to help the children who are affected by it. Almost 12 million Aids orphans live in southern Africa, and the charity is worried about the effect this will have on local communities in the future.

DPA - The number of the AIDS orphans increased in the past two years from 11.5 million to 15 million, with 12.3 million of them living in sub-Saharan Africa it was reported on Tuesday at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. The United Nations report "Children on the Abyss" pointed out that there are many more children under the age of 17 living with ill or dying parents, who are vulnerable and thereby more susceptible to infections from the AIDS virus. Even if there no new HIV infections in the next 10 years the number of the AIDS orphans would rise until 2010 to 18.4 million, reported the child welfare agency UNICEF and warned at the same time of the destabilization of many countries by the AIDS crisis.

VOA - A new United Nations report says the number of children worldwide who have lost one or both parents to AIDS has reached 15 million. The U.N. Children's Fund, in a report released Tuesday at the International AIDS Conference in Thailand, says that number will likely grow to more than 18 million by 2010. UNICEF officials say most of the victimized children are from Africa. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy says parts of sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing what she called a "tidal wave" of orphaning, in varying degrees due to AIDS. And U.N. officials warn that Asia also could be faced with a serious orphan crisis unless it stops the AIDS epidemic.

DPA - Nigeria accounted for 800,000 of the 5.5 million new AIDS orphans produced by sub-Sahara Africa last year, the United Nations children's organization UNICEF said in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday. In the report, UNICEF also said that between 2001 and 2003, the global number of children orphaned due to AIDS rose "from 11.5 million to 15 million, the vast majority in Africa". "In Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, orphan numbers have dropped by around a tenth since 1990," it added. "Parts of sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing a tidal wave of orphaning in varying degrees due to AIDS," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, said in the report.

Japan Economic Newswire - U.N. agencies on Tuesday urged governments and international donors to fund the implementation of urgent measures to tackle the problem of rising numbers of children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. The U.N. Children's Fund and the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, made the call in the report, 'Children on the Brink 2004,' issued at the weeklong 15th International AIDS Conference, which began Sunday in Bangkok. 'The orphan crisis is...the cruelest legacy of the AIDS pandemic...but so little has been done,' UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy told a press conference. 'If this situation is not addressed now with increased urgency, millions of children will continue to die and tens of millions more will be further marginalized, stigmatized, malnourished, uneducated, and psychologically damaged,' Bellamy said.

UN Wire - By 2010, about 50 million children in sub-Saharan Africa will be orphans, more than a third of them having lost one or both parents to AIDS, says a biennial report on orphans released today by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS and UNICEF. According to Children on the Brink 2004, the number of AIDS orphans worldwide has increased from 11.5 million to 15 million, most of them in Africa. In Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of orphans has decreased by about one-tenth since 1990. "Parts of sub Saharan Africa are undergoing a tidal wave of orphaning, in varying degrees due to AIDS," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. "The report clearly spells out what's best for children — keeping their parents alive and healthy, ensuring that they get good educations, and strengthening the laws, policies and norms that protect children from exploitation and abuse."

Islam Online (UK) - The United Nations and France on Tuesday, July 13, criticized the United States for doing little to fight AIDS, as protesters disrupted the world AIDS forum with a series of demonstrations demanding cheaper drugs and more money to tackle the pandemic. Leaders in the fight against AIDS have repeatedly used the conference to call for more money to tackle the crisis that has killed more than 20 million people. But experts said money was not the only problem. The number of children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa will also top 18 million by 2010, the UN and US warned at the conference. "The orphan crisis is arguably the cruelest legacy of this whole pandemic," UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy told reporters.

IRIN - By 2010 more than one in five children in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe will be orphaned by AIDS, a joint UN and US report warned on Tuesday. "Children on the Brink 2004" is the fourth edition of this biennial report, based on surveys conducted by UNICEF, UNAIDS and USAID. Alarmingly, the studies found that 20 percent of households with children in Southern Africa were taking care of one or more AIDS orphans. UNICEF's executive director, Carol Bellamy, told a press briefing in Bangkok, Thailand this week that the number of AIDS orphans worldwide had shot up from 11.5 million in 2001 to 15 million in 2003. "The worst may still be ahead of us - far too many [parents] will die," she warned.

Xinhua - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, criticized the United States for failing to deliver enough funds to tackle AIDS worldwide, saying the fight against terrorism was overshadowing the epidemic of the disease and its virus. Anita Tiessen, deputy director of UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), told the BBC, "There has not been enough money, but more importantly there hasn't been enough political leadership."It is a complicated disease, and it is complicated to prevent it because it is about sexual behavior. One of the most critical issues is that children are really being affected. We expect that by the end of the decade there will be 25 million children who are orphans because their parents have died of AIDS," she said. "These are children who are then not getting an education, possibly having to raise their younger siblings, and very, very much at risk of exploitation by prostitution or trafficking," she said.

UN News Centre - Young people at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok told UNICEF today that the epidemic is spiralling out of control because they are being denied such rights as prevention education, testing and treatment. Claiming their right to be recognized as partners in the global fight against AIDS, 40 conference participants under the age of 25 presented UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy with a list of vital conditions, culled from UNICEF-supported youth consultations in 14 countries across six regions. The conditions included access to "information and life skills" for HIV prevention, reproductive health, drug prevention and correct condom use. Information must be available and accessible to all young people, while schools must provide HIV education to students and ensure that teachers are adequately trained on the issue.

12 July

AP, Atlanta Journal & Constitution, The State (SC), Philadelphia Inquirer, Orlando Sentinel, Newsday, San Jose Mercury, Macon Telegraph, Charlotte Observer, Kanas City Star, Seattle Post, Las Vegas Sun, Yahoo Denmark, others - HIV experts criticized Washington's decision to send a pared-down delegation to the International AIDS Conference beginning Sunday as an intrusion of politics into science. Conference organizers see the U.S. move as a reaction to the conference's lack of focus on abstinence as a way of preventing the spread of HIV - a pillar of President Bush's policy on AIDS.

A major debate is scheduled at the conference on the merits of the Bush-backed ABC strategy, which stands for "Abstinence, Being Faithful, Condom Use" - in that order. Critics say promoting condoms should come first. Carol Bellamy, the executive director of UNICEF, said the policy ignores reality. "ABC is insufficient when it comes to women in general. A: Rape doesn't respect abstinence; B: their partners are supposed to be but that is increasingly not occurring; and C: condoms are generally in the control of men. So when it comes to women and AIDS, let's understand the insufficiency of A, B and C," she said.

The Australian - OpEd from Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer: “HIV/AIDS is a global emergency that Australia must confront within and beyond our borders. Around the world, 20million people -- the equivalent of Australia's population -- have died already. A further 38million are now living with the disease. Australia has been relatively successful in combating the disease at home and we must continue to lead the battle against the emerging crisis in our region. [...] Yesterday I appointed Australia's first special representative on HIV/AIDS, Annmaree O'Keeffe. [...] Australia also works in partnership with multilateral organizations such as UNAIDS and UNICEF. And earlier this year I announced a $25million commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, supporting the delivery of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to the victims of this insidious disease.

Reuters, AlertNet - Senegal is a poor country, yet its HIV rate is one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of early, bold and open action. Half the country's 10 million people live in poverty, according to government figures, but Senegal has kept a stable and low HIV rate of 1.4%. The country has not received massive injections of foreign aid for AIDS, and more than half of women and one-quarter of men are illiterate, according to the U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF. So why have its HIV rates remained low while they soar across sub-Saharan Africa? When the first six AIDS cases appeared in 1986, a team of scientists and doctors convinced President Abdou Diouf to use this window of opportunity, possibly the only one, to contain AIDS. So Senegal pulled out all the stops on prevention, taking multiple steps, from ensuring a safe blood supply, to regulating the sex industry, to talking openly about the disease and destigmatizing it.

Japan Economic Newswire - A fund-raising campaign will be held at the upcoming Asian Cup to help Chinese children with HIV/AIDS, organizers of the soccer tournament said Saturday. Under the campaign organized by the Asian Football Confederation and the U.N. Children's Fund, donors will give a predetermined amount of money to UNICEF for every goal scored in the tournament, they said. According to UNICEF, an estimated 58,000 children under 18 in China are infected with HIV/AIDS.