Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 10/25/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - ETHIOPIA: Nearly half of the children orphaned by HIV/AIDS

2 - SUDAN: AIDS could spread rapidly in the south, warns UNICEF

1 - ETHIOPIA: Nearly half of the children orphaned by HIV/AIDS

ADDIS ABABA, 25 October (PLUSNEWS) - Ethiopia has one of the largest populations

of orphans in the world with nearly half of the children having lost at least

one of their parents.

A government official said on Tuesday that HIV/AIDS, disease, hunger and poverty

threatened to drive the number of orphaned children from 11 percent to 43

percent of the 45 million children in Ethiopia by 2010.

This could mean some 19 million children will have lost one or both of their

parents, according to the figures, said Bulti Gutema, the head of the

government's taskforce on the problem of orphans and vulnerable children. He

said the figures were based on projections by the health ministry.

Bulti said antiretroviral drugs are vital in curbing the explosion but less than

five percent got the drugs. Cheap antibiotics costing less than US $0.03 cents

could also cut the numbers of child deaths from HIV/AIDS in the country by half

but less than one per cent of the children got them, he added.

" This is a huge problem, " he said at the launch of a new initiative to highlight

the problem and bridge the massive funding gap that exists.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimate that looking after each orphaned child

in Ethiopia would cost around $300 a year, totalling some $1.38 billion. But the

organisation has less than $10 million available even though Ethiopia has one of

the largest populations of orphans in the world. Some 300,000 children already

live on the streets, according to the UN body.

Bjorn Ljungqvist, head of UNICEF Ethiopia said the scale of the crisis was

daunting.

" It is easy to stand and look at the problem from a distance and wring our hands

at how big and impossible the problem is, " he said. " But we must confront this. "

The warning came as UNICEF launched a global campaign focusing on the enormous

impact of HIV/AIDS on children. Worldwide, fewer than five percent of

HIV-positive children receive treatment and millions of children who have lost

parents to the disease go without support.

There are currently 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia - with around 540,000 of

them having been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

[ENDS]

2 - SUDAN: AIDS could spread rapidly in the south, warns UNICEF

NAIROBI, 25 October (PLUSNEWS) - HIV/AIDS prevalence rates could increase

rapidly in southern Sudan unless immediate action is taken to address the

problem, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.

The warning followed the launch of a global campaign focusing on the impact of

HIV/AIDS on children on Monday.

" Unofficial reports say that, among blood donors, a low percentage test HIV

positive, but that percentage is increasing fast, " Ben , UNICEF

communication officer, told IRIN in Nairobi. " HIV is getting a grip. "

The conditions in southern Sudan were conducive to an explosive spread of

HIV/AIDS, UNICEF noted, and health experts feared a disaster was on the horizon.

The signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in January, which ended the

country's 21-year civil war, had resulted in massive increases in population

movement, social and political change, and increased mobility, trade and

investment within Sudan and with neighbouring countries.

" The war that has been fought in the south has taken its toll on southerners. If

that war starts again [HIV/AIDS], we are going to lose our young people, and

there will be no development in the country... the human resources that were

going to be built to develop the country would be lost to AIDS. So we are

worried about it if it's not well-controlled, " Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of

southern Sudan, told UNICEF in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on

Thursday.

Greater freedom for people to come and go from neighbouring countries with very

high prevalence rates increases the potential for HIV/AIDS transmission, UNICEF

warned. However, the limited statistics available showed that HIV/AIDS has

already gained a foothold within the country.

" HIV is already here - tens of thousands of people in southern Sudan are

infected. It's not a disease of foreigners or outsiders, " noted.

According to a recent survey, the current level of awareness of HIV and its

transmission among southern Sudanese was very low.

UNICEF feared this might create problems with returning internally displaced

persons and refugees as they might be blamed for bringing HIV into the host

communities. It could also create high levels of stigma and discrimination for

people living with HIV/AIDS.

" Children are the forgotten side of AIDS. Southern Sudan needs the younger

generation to re-build the region. It can't afford babies to be born with HIV or

teenagers to catch it. They are counting on them, " added.

The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the entire territory of Sudan is estimated at

2.6 percent. Whereas reliable prevalence figures for southern Sudan are not

available, it is generally assumed that rates in the south are higher.

The greatest challenges facing south Sudan's HIV programming, UNICEF observed,

was that HIV/AIDS was not seen as a top priority in southern Sudan due to the

fact that the published prevalence rate was relatively low and because there

were many other overwhelming issues to address.

In southern Sudan, one in four children die before the age of five, acute

malnutrition among children under the age of five is one of the highest in the

world (21.5 percent), the maternal mortality rate is 1,700 per 100,000 live

births, and access to health services, education, and clean water is minimal.

The lack of comprehensive baseline data on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention

behaviour patterns, the situation of orphans and vulnerable children, and

prevalence rates in the general population further hampered agencies efforts to

mobilise and allocate resources and prioritise projects.

The lack of health care facilities and skilled health workers made treatment and

care of people living with HIV/AIDS virtually impossible.

According to , there were no antiretroviral drugs available in southern

Sudan, although those who could afford them were able to get them in Khartoum or

Uganda. " But they are very expensive and their administration probably not well

supervised, " he noted.

He added that there were only 12 places in the whole of southern Sudan where

pregnant women could get drugs to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to

child. The oldest of these clinics had been operational for no longer than 6

months.

" We need a whole bouquet of maternal health services, which would include

measures to prevent [HIV] transmission, " said.

The quality of antenatal care was so low, he added, that it did not make sense

to focus on one disease and one drug, only.

" We have a chance not to repeat the mistakes of other countries where it got out

of control. It is relatively low now - let's keep it that way and drive it out, "

urged. " All the benefits of peace can be wiped out by this disease. "

[ENDS]

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