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Factsheet on Children and HIV/AIDS - Child Protection Week 2003

• Approximately 6.5 million people in South Africa are estimated to be HIV-positive, including 3.2 million women of childbearing age (15 to 49);


• For every young man between the ages of 15 and 24 years who is infected with HIV, 4 young women are infected;


• Approximately 75% of HIV-infected people in South Africa are in stages 1 and 2 of disease progression i.e. they have not yet developed symptoms and many do not know their status and


• As of July 2002, around 700 000 people in South Africa had died of AIDS, with about 1 out 3 of these deaths occurring in Kwazulu-Natal.


The illness and death of adults as a result of HIV/AIDS has a profound impact on the survival, development and protection of children in South Africa.

Children infected with HIV

• Between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2002, 89 000 children (around 7.5% of the total number of children born during this period) were infected with HIV as a result of being born to an HIV-positive mother.


• Without access to health care services that can prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child, the cumulative number of HIV-infected children in South Africa will continue to grow.


• Without access to the necessary basic health care services and support, most of these children will require repeated and prolonged hospital admissions (placing a massive burden on health facilities) and will die before their 5th birthday.


Improved health service delivery to HIV-positive children is urgently needed as part of a comprehensive national treatment plan.

Children experiencing orphanhood
Last year alone, about 150 000 children lost a mother to AIDS. In the absence of any major new health intervention, close to 2 million children in South Africa will lose a mother by 2010 (the vast majority of them to AIDS) 1. These figures do not take into account those children who will lose their fathers or the hundreds of thousands of children living with sick and dying adults.

Research recently completed by the Children?’s Institute demonstrates some of the multiple vulnerabilities faced by children prior to the death of their caregivers, including the fact that children frequently take on responsibility for caring for sick adults (without access to even the most basic health care supplies), and are unable to concentrate at or attend school because of the difficulties experienced at home. In short, in the case of HIV/AIDS related illness, children?’s experiences of orphanhood and their compounded vulnerabilities begin long before the death of a significant adult.

Furthermore, as a result of the illness or death of adults in HIV-affected households, the earning capacity of the affected household diminishes while at the same time, costs related to health care and funerals escalate. Not surprisingly is that many of the experiences of children who have been orphaned are poverty related ?– such as an inability to afford school fees and school uniforms, repeated and prolonged experiences of hunger, inadequate housing and poor access to water.

The full fact sheet can be downloaded on the righthand side of this page