|
|
 |
Orphans - a challenge created by HIV/AIDS
Medical Research Council of South Africa press release. 13 June 2002.
|
South Africa faces the challenge of having to look after 1.85 million children orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in 2015. This translates to 15% of children under 15 whose mothers will have died from AIDS.
These and other statistics such as the fact that at least 5.7 million children under the age of 18 would have lost one or both parents by year 2015 if there are no significant treatment interventions or changes in behaviour, are the overarching theme of a policy brief released by the Burden of Disease Research Unit of the Medical Research Council. These findings are based on research done by Leigh Johnson and Professor Rob Dorrington at the University of Cape Town?’s Centre for Actuarial Research to assess the impact of the epidemic.
On the basis of these estimates, the brief states that saving on short-term costs will merely result in escalation of the long-term costs to society in terms of reduced literacy levels, increased crime and increased economic strain on affected households.
A multi-pronged approach is needed using various strategies by government and the community. All forms of state support for children need to be expanded and community based systems need to be promoted:
* Community child care committees and community structures should be set up to identify orphaned and vulnerable children and to safeguard their rights, e.g. assisting them and their families to obtain child welfare grants, access to health care and education and protecting them from abuse;
* placing adults (usually older women) in the homes of orphaned children; and
* creating a family or cluster foster care programme where surrogate mothers are identified and hired to look after a number of orphans in homes in the community.
Won?’t mother-to-child transmission prevention programmes increase the number of orphans left behind? ?“It is often suggested that introducing a mother-to-child transmission prevention programme will result in a substantial increase in the number of maternal orphans. However, research has shown that this is clearly not the case - with only 10% more orphans expected,?” said Dr Debbie Bradshaw, co-author of the MRC Policy Brief.
The brief states that current prevention programmes such as changing sexual behaviour patterns, condom distribution, and AIDS awareness programmes are unlikely to reduce the number of orphans in the short term. In the long-term, however, they will reduce the number of orphans by 10%.
Although prevention programmes may not achieve short-term reduction in the number of orphans, a significant reduction in the number and trend in number of orphaned children can be achieved through antiretroviral treatment programmes to all HIV-positive individuals.
Such programmes may succeed in extending the lives of a large number of parents to the stage where their children are self-supporting. By 2015 the number of maternally orphaned children could be roughly half the number expected without any antiretroviral intervention, at 1.15 million. |
| Was this article helpful to you? |
 ?100%???? ?0%
|
|
Back
|
|
|
|
