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HIV/AIDS and orphan rates mentally taxing - UN official

    JOHANNESBURG

    Witnessing the "death spiral" of HIV/AIDS in African countries was heart-breaking, a senior UN official has said.

    Addressing a London audience recently, Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, said millions of African children now lived without family and education because their parents had died of an AIDS pandemic largely ignored by the rest of the world.

    "Kids in Africa don't become orphans when their parents die. They become orphans while their parents are dying ... it is heart-breaking," Lewis said.

    It is estimated that as many as 27 million adults are living with HIV/AIDS in Africa and at least as many children have been orphaned by the pandemic.

    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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