{{Short description|Child whose parents have died from AIDS}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}} {{owidslider |start = 2024 |list = Template:OWID/Number of children orphaned from aids#gallery |location = commons |caption = |title = |language = |file = link=|thumb|upright=1.6|right|Number of children orphaned from aids |startingView = World }}
[[File:MOPC 01.jpg|thumb|220px|AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe]] An '''AIDS orphan''' is a child who became an orphan because one or both parents died from AIDS.
In statistics from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the term is used for a child whose mother has died due to AIDS before the child's 15th birthday, regardless of whether the father is still alive.<ref>[http://data.unaids.org/Publications/IRC-pub05/orphrept_en.pdf UNAIDS.org] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703221725/http://data.unaids.org/Publications/IRC-pub05/orphrept_en.pdf |date=3 July 2007 }} PDF</ref> As a result of this definition, one study estimated that 80% of all AIDS orphans still have one living parent.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/270409 |title=South Africa's 3,4-million Aids-orphans to get 'adult' rights |date=4 April 2009 |author=Stuijt, Adriana }}</ref>
There are 70,000 new AIDS orphans a year (as of 2001).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010602211039/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,128736,00.html AIDS Orphan's Preventable Death Challenges Those Left Behind], by Tony Karon, 1 June 2001</ref>
Because HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is spread mainly through sexual activity, AIDS-related deaths are often people who are their family's primary wage earners. The resulting AIDS orphans frequently depend on the state for care and financial support, particularly in Africa.<ref name="avertaids">{{cite web |url=http://www.avert.org/aidsorphans.htm |title=AIDS orphans |publisher=Avert |access-date=2006-10-08| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061009175018/http://www.avert.org/aidsorphans.htm| archive-date= 9 October 2006 | url-status= live}}</ref>
The highest number of orphans due to AIDS alive in 2007 was in South Africa<ref name="avertaids" /> (although the definition of AIDS orphan in South African statistics includes children up to the age of 18 who have lost either biological parent).<ref>[http://www.childrencount.ci.org.za/content.asp?TopLinkID=6&PageID=18 children count]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Government of South Africa</ref> In 2005, the highest number of AIDS orphans as a percentage of all orphans was in Zimbabwe.<ref name="avertaids" />
==See also== * Index of HIV/AIDS-related articles
==References== <references />
==External links== {{commons category}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20190703150014/https://www.thebody.com/content/art1111.html AIDS Orphan Resources Around the Globe] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100708203108/http://www.namchild.gov.na/ !Nam Child Wiki] (Namibian Wiki on Children) {{AIDS}}
Category:HIV/AIDS Category:Effects of death on children Category:Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement