UNICEF delivers drugs for AIDS orphans

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday handed over drugs worth US $100,000 to the Ministry of Health in the Central African Republic (CAR) for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, a UNICEF official told IRIN. "The beneficiaries are estimated to be 200 HIV orphans aged below 15 years," Speciose Hakizimana, the CAR UNICEF HIV/AIDS project officer, said. Hakizimana said the drugs would be distributed to selected health facilities in the capital, Bangui, and the towns of Mbaiki, 107 km southwest of Bangui, and Sibut, 185 km to the northeast, in a programme that would continue until the end of December. "The project targeted these cities because their health facilities were already operational and [they] only needed drugs," Hakizimana said, adding that the drugs, to be given free of charge, also included drugs for malaria, parasites, fever and antibiotics. "Late in 2001, UNAIDS and WHO [UN World Health Organisation] estimated the number of HIV/AIDS orphans in the CAR to be 110,000," some of whom were living in orphanages and others with foster families, Hakizimana said. Hakizimana said that in 2000 UNICEF began a mother-to-child HIV prevention programme "which now covers all Bangui", and that the agency was planning to extend that programme to Mbaiki soon. She said UNICEF and the CAR government were due to adopt "this week" a programme to introduce HIV/AIDS-related lessons in primary schools. A December 2002 HIV mapping by Institut Pasteur and the national anti-HIV/AIDS committee showed that the HIV prevalence in the CAR was about 15 percent, making the CAR the most affected nation in the central African region.