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Orphaned children

About 95 percent of AIDS orphans lived in sub-Sahara Africa, he said, and a UNICEF report says children orphaned by the disease painted the most tragic picture. For each adult that died, it says, four to six remained behind. At the beginning of the epidemic their numbers had reached 11 million. By the end of next year, the agency said, a cumulative total of 30 million children would have lost a mother, or both parents to AIDS. Another dimension of the AIDS pandemic in Africa is that for the first time infected women aged from 15 to 49 outnumbered infected men.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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