Findings: The Problem - Children Orphaned by AIDS in Africa - ONAP

<BODY bgcolor="#FFFFF0">  <noscript><iframe alt="Google Tag Manager" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-WLMC86" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden" title="Google Tag Manager"></iframe></noscript>   <script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-WLMC86');</script>  <style type="text/css"> #menufloat { position:fixed; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color:#FFFFCC; color:#000; font-size:.8em; padding:2px 5px 2px 5px; top: 2px; margin:1px; text-align:center; width:889px; /*z-index:5;*/ border:solid 1px #666666; } </style>  <noscript><iframe alt="Google Tag Manager" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-WLMC86" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden" title="Google Tag Manager"></iframe></noscript>  <div id="menufloat">This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.</div> <p align="center"><img src="images/kids_small.jpg" width="250" height="66" alt="Picture of children"></p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Report on the Presidential Mission on Children<br> Orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa:<br> <b>Findings and Plan of Action</b></font></p> <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">.........................................<br> <a href="#contents">GO TO CONTENTS</a><br> .........................................<br> <br></font></b></p>  <p align="left"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+2">Findings</font></b></p> <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+2"><i><font size="+1">The Problem</font></i></font><font size="+1"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></b></font><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+2"> </font></b></p> <div style='border:none;border-top:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:16.0pt 0in 0in 0in'> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is a plague of biblical proportions. <o:p></o:p></b></font></div> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, notes The United Nations, is the "worst infectious disease catastrophe since the bubonic plague."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Deaths due to AIDS in the region will soon surpass the 20 million people in Europe who died in the plague of 1347 and the more than 20 million people worldwide who died in the influenza epidemic of 1917.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Over the next decade, AIDS will kill more people in sub-Saharan Africa than the total number of casualties lost in all wars of the 20<sup>th</sup> century combined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">While sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only one-tenth of the global population, it currently carries the burden of more than 80% of AIDS deaths worldwide:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <ul> <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">In the past decade, 12 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have died of AIDS - one-quarter of them children - and each day AIDS buries another 5,500 men, women and children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></li> <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">In 1998, AIDS was the largest killer and accounted for 1.8 million deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly double the 1 million deaths from malaria and eight times the 209,000 deaths from tuberculosis.</font></li> <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 2005, the daily death toll will reach 13,000 people with, nearly 5 million AIDS deaths in that year alone. </font></li> </ul> <p class=MsoBodyText style='margin-top:12.0pt;tab-stops:.75in'><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">And yet, the pandemic rages on: </font></p> <ul> <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 22 million adults and 1 million children are currently living with HIV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></li> <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">Every day, 11,000 additional people are infected - one every 8 seconds. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></li> <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">Since the Administration launched this effort on World AIDS Day (December 1, 1998), more than 2.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have been infected with HIV, 368,000 in South Africa alone. </font></li> <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">Half of all new infections in southern Africa, and 10% of new infections worldwide, occur in South Africa, now experiencing the fastest growing AIDS disaster.</font></li> </ul> <p class=MsoBodyText align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b>HIV Prevalence Trends<br> in Selected African Countries</b></font></p> <div style='border-top:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-left:none;border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:1.0pt 0in 1.0pt 0in'></div> <p class=MsoBodyText align=center style='margin-top:6.0pt;text-align:center'><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><img width=413 height=262 src="images/image008.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1028" alt="HIV Prevalence Trends in Selected African Countries"><br> </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Source: <a href="/cgi-bin/good-bye.cgi?url=http://www.unaids.org" target="_blank">UNAIDS</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">Fragile health care systems are already buckling beneath the weight of the rapidly growing number of people with AIDS and the growing loss of health personnel as a result of AIDS. For example, The <a href="/cgi-bin/good-bye.cgi?url=http://www.worldbank.org" target="_blank">World Bank</a> estimates that in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Cote d'Ivoire, people with AIDS already occupy 50-80% of all beds in urban hospitals. In addition, the escalating incidence of tuberculosis (TB), the most common opportunistic infection associated with AIDS, now accounts for between one-third and one-half of all AIDS deaths in Africa.</font></p> <p class=MsoBodyText style='margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom: 12.0pt;margin-left:0in'><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is stalking women and young people, shattering families, and placing extraordinary burdens on the extended family and village systems that have been the backbone of African child-rearing tradition. <o:p></o:p></b></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">While AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is an equal opportunity killer, women, children, and young people are increasingly caught in the path of this relentless pandemic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">All too often, cultural norms place women at heightened risk of HIV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and around the world, discrimination against women begins early and continues throughout life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Girls are far less likely to have access to education, information, and skill training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And in turn, women are far less likely to have access to essential health care and income generating opportunities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These realities increase their vulnerability to both poverty and HIV.</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">The low status of women in sub-Saharan Africa severely restricts their power to make informed and safe choices. As a result, more than half of all new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa are among women and 80% of the 14 million HIV-positive women of childbearing age worldwide reside in sub-Saharan Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In many areas throughout the region, pregnant women have astronomically high rates of HIV infection including 73% in Beit Bridge, Zimbabwe and 43% in Francistown, Botswana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Nine out of every ten infants infected with HIV at birth and through breastfeeding live in sub-Saharan Africa - with nearly 600,000 new infections each year among babies.</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">There are many places throughout the region where up to one-quarter of all children are already living with an HIV-positive parent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And in nine sub-Saharan African countries, between one-fifth and one-third of all children will be orphaned by AIDS by the end of this year. In human terms, the AIDS orphan emergency is causing unprecedented threats to child welfare. This vulnerability includes decreased access to life-sustaining food, education, health care, housing, and clothing, and increased psychosocial distress brought on by the death of a parent, isolation, and stigma. These children are also at extraordinary risk of physical and sexual abuse as well as child labor exploitation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And while most of these orphans were born HIV-negative - this vulnerability leaves them at seriously increased risk of becoming HIV infected themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">Tragically, the worst is yet to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>During the next decade, more than 40 million children will be orphaned by AIDS, and this "slow burn disaster" is not expected to peak until at least 2O3O.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>According to UNICEF, the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa is having and will continue to have a more significant impact on child survival and maternal mortality than all other emergencies on the continent combined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Without a doubt, AIDS has placed an entire generation of Africa's children in jeopardy. <br style='mso-special-character: line-break'> </font></p> <p class=MsoBodyText align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b>In 9 sub-Saharan African countries,<br> one-fifth to one-third of all children<br> under the age of 15 will be orphaned by the year 2000<br> </b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><img width=503 height=266 src="images/image010.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1029" alt="Children Orphaned by AIDS in 9 sub-Saharan Countries"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></b></font></p> <p class=MsoBodyText align=center style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:49.5pt; margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:85.5pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center; mso-line-height-alt:6.0pt;tab-stops:list -4.5pt'><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Source: <a href="/cgi-bin/good-bye.cgi?url=http://www.info.usaid.gov" target="_blank">USAID</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></b></font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>AIDS is wiping out decades of progress on a host of development objectives. </b>After hundreds of millions of dollars of donor investment and well-documented results, AIDS is now turning back the development clock to the 1960s. In the coming decade in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa, infant mortality (those less than one year old) will double and child mortality (those under age five) will triple. In addition, despite steady advances in access to education, a rapidly increasing number of children (particularly girls) are now dropping out of school to act as substitute labor or as caregivers for their dying parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Far too few are finding their way back to school. Finally, according to the US Census Bureau, AIDS has already reduced life expectancy in Zimbabwe by 25 years and in Zambia from 56 years old to 37.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the next few years, AIDS will reduce life expectancy in South Africa by a third, from 60 years old to 40.</font></p> <p class=MsoBodyText align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">Projected Under-5 Mortality Rates<br> in 2010 for Selected African Countries</font></b></p> <p class=MsoBodyText align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><img width=501 height=283 src="images/image012.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1030" alt="Projected Under-5 Mortality Rates in 2010 for Selected African Countries"><br> </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">S<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>ource: <a href="/cgi-bin/good-bye.cgi?url=http://www.census.gov" target="_blank">US Census Bureau</a></span></font></p> <p> </p> <p><font size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">AIDS is not only causing unfathomable human suffering, it is jeopardizing economic growth, political stability, and civil society in many sub-Saharan African nations.</font></b></font></p> <font size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></font></b></font><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>AIDS is a trade and investment issue<i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></i></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></i></b>The<i style='mso-bidi-font-style: normal'> Blueprint for a US/Africa Partnership for the 21<sup>st</sup> Century</i>, adopted at the US/Africa Ministerial Meeting states: "African-US economic ties continue to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For example, US exports to Africa grew more rapidly in 1998 than did US exports to most other regions and are now 45% greater than its exports to all countries of the former Soviet Union combined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As a source of crude oil, Africa is as important to the United States as the Persian Gulf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On a balance of payment basis, American private investment consistently produces a higher rate of return in Africa than in any other region."</font> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">According to Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Harvard Institute for International Development, "a frontal attack on AIDS in Africa may now be the single most important strategy for economic development." This is true because as the Southern Africa AIDS Information Dissemination Service estimates, over the next 20 years AIDS will reduce by a fourth the economies of sub-Saharan Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In fact, this AIDS related economic impact has already begun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>According to the <i style='mso-bidi-font-style: normal'>Economist</i>, a recent study in Namibia estimated that AIDS costs the country almost 8% of GNP in 1996 and by 2005, Kenya's GNP will be 14.5% smaller than it would have been without AIDS. In Tanzania, The World Bank predicts that GNP will be 15-25% lower as a result of AIDS. The South African government estimates that AIDS costs the country 2% of GNP each year.</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">AIDS has hit professionals hard in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly civil servants, engineers, teachers, miners, and military personnel. In Malawi and Zambia, 30% of teachers are HIV-positive, and in Zambia, 1,500 teachers died of AIDS in 1998 alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In South Africa, 1 in 5 miners is currently infected with HIV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Uganda Railways has already lost 5,600 employees (10% of its workforce) to AIDS and now has an AIDS-related labor turnover rate of 15% annually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And in Zimbabwe, a major transportation company employing 12,000 workers found that by 1996 more than one-third were already HIV positive. According to a World Bank study in Kigali, Rwanda, 34% of people with post-secondary education were HIV positive, compared to 18% of those with primary education, and civil servants were more than three times more likely to be HIV-positive than farmers. </font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">Increased benefits and training costs, and the disruption to regular production due to sick and bereavement leave, are seriously affecting both the private and public sectors. A study in South Africa found that at current levels of benefits per employee, the total cost of benefits would rise from 7% of salaries in 1995 to 19% by 2005 due to AIDS. Companies like British Petroleum and Barclays Bank have stated that they are now hiring two employees for every one skilled job, assuming that one will die of AIDS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Indeni Petroleum Refinery in Zambia reportedly spent more on AIDS-related costs than it declared in profits. </font></p> <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;layout-grid-mode:line'> </span> </b></font> </div> <div style='border-top:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-left:none;border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:1.0pt 0in 1.0pt 0in' align="center"> <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">Annual Costs of AIDS Per Employee in<br> Various Industries in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries</font></b></p> </div> <div align="center"> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><img width=446 height=322 src="images/image014.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1031" alt="Annual Costs of AIDS Per Employee in Various Industries in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries"><br> </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Source:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Futures Group International,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><a href="/cgi-bin/good-bye.cgi?url=http://www.info.usaid.gov" target="_blank">USAID</a> Policy Project, 1999.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p> </div> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><br> AIDS is a security and stability issue. </b>According to the <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Economist</i>, "the estimated HIV prevalence in the seven armies embroiled in the Congo range from 50% to 80%." Recent reports project that the South African military and police are also already heavily infected by HIV. Moreover, as these troops participate in an increasing number of regional interventions and peacekeeping operations, the pace of the epidemic is likely to accelerate. Extremely high levels of HIV infection among senior officers could lead to rapid turnover in those positions. In countries where the military plays a central or strong role in government, such rapid turnover could weaken the central government's authority. For those countries in political transition, instability in the military and security forces could slow or even reverse the transition process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This dynamic merits attention, not only in Africa where the pandemic is already entrenched, but also in India and the Newly Independent States where the pandemic is intensifying its grip.</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>AIDS is a crime issue. </b>The South African Institute for Security Studies has linked the growing number of children orphaned by AIDS to future increases in crime and civil unrest. The assumption is that as the number of disaffected, troubled, and undereducated young people increases, many sub-Saharan African countries may face serious threats to their social stability. Without appropriate intervention, many of the two million children projected to be orphaned by AIDS in South Africa alone will raise themselves on the streets, often turning to crime, drugs, commercial sex, and gangs to survive. This seriously affects stability and promotes the spread of HIV among these highly vulnerable young people. </font></p> <table width="90%" border="1" cellpadding="10" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" bordercolordark="#400000" bordercolorlight="#804000" align="center" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td height="10"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">In Lusaka, Zambia alone, 100,000 children are estimated to be living on the streets. Most have been orphaned by AIDS. By the year 2000, one million children in Zambia, or one out of every three children, will be orphaned by AIDS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hundreds and hundreds of these children spend </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><img width=170 height=264 src="images/image016.jpg" align=left v:shapes="_x0000_s1196" hspace="10" vspace="10" alt="Street school for street kids"></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">their nights on Cairo Road, sleeping in gutters and in trees, hoping to remain out of the "line of fire".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some are new to the streets, others have called it home for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The longer they stay, the harder they get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In an effort to survive, too many are forced into crime, sex, and drug operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While none would actually "choose" this life, once they "belong to the streets" it is difficult to turn back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Though good data are lacking, it is likely that HIV infection is spreading like wildfire among these children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Given their grim reality, it is amazing that as the dawn breaks, so many of them gather at the gate of the Fountain of Hope to attend school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While this school is simply a collection of wooden benches around outdoor blackboards, the desire to learn among these hungry, homeless children gives us hope.</font></span></font></td> </tr> </table> <p>  </p> <div style='border:solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:12.0pt 0in 15.0pt 12.0pt'> <p class=MsoBodyText style='margin-left:0in;tab-stops:0in;border:none; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:12.0pt 0in 15.0pt 12.0pt'><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight: normal'>As goes Africa, so will go India, South-East Asia, and the Newly Independent States, and by 2005, more than 100 million people worldwide will be HIV-positive.<o:p></o:p></b></font></p> </div> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">According to current projections, by 2005, AIDS deaths in Asia will mirror those in Africa. As the world's most populous continent, Asia will soon come to dominate the HIV picture accounting for one out of every four infections worldwide by the end of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Already, trends suggest that Asia may surpass Africa with the highest number of new infections.</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">India is increasingly at the center of the global epidemic, with more HIV infected people than any other country in the world - an estimated 5 million.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While the current death rate remains low in comparison to sub-Saharan Africa, infection rates are increasing rapidly and are expected to double every 14 months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Surveillance of the disease is particularly difficult in India as cultural norms, gender inequities, and stigma continue to drive the epidemic underground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As a result, AIDS cases in India are thought to be under-diagnosed, and therefore, poorly treated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>By 2000, AIDS will cost India $11 billion or 5% of GNP.</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">According to Surgeon General Satcher, "It was only a few years ago that epidemiologists offered projections of disease prevalence for sub-Saharan Africa that were met with disbelief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If the present warnings go unheeded, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and, perhaps, China will follow the disastrous course of sub-Saharan Africa."</font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">The Newly Independent States have also registered astronomical growth in HIV infection rates over the past few years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the last four years alone, Eastern Europe and Central Asia have seen six-fold increases in HIV infections. </font></p> <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">In the Russian Federation, HIV infections have increased 27-fold between 1994-1997.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And in the Ukraine, HIV infections have increased 70-fold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Injection drug use now accounts for 80% of new infections in the Russian Federation and the increasing number of new users signals a growing dual epidemic of AIDS and drugs.</font></p> <p> </p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 style='margin-left:59.4pt; border-collapse:collapse;border:none;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt' bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="95%"> <tr> <td width=150 valign="middle" align="center"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black'>Region<o:p></o:p></span></b></font></td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Epidemic Started<o:p></o:p></span></b></font></td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Adults & Children Living With HIV/AIDS<o:p></o:p></span></b></font></td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Adults & Children Newly Infected<br> With HIV<o:p></o:p></span></b></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td width=150 valign="middle" align="center"> <div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Sub-Saharan Africa<o:p></o:p></span></b></font></div> </td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"> <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";letter-spacing:0pt'>Late 70's - Early 80's<o:p></o:p></span></font></div> </td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";letter-spacing: 0pt'>22,500,000<o:p></o:p></span></font></td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>4,000,000<o:p></o:p></span></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td width=150 valign="middle" align="center"> <div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>South & South-East Asia<o:p></o:p></span></b></font></div> </td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"> <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family: Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Late 80's</span></font></div> </td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>7,260,000</span></font></td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>1,400,000</span></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td width=150 valign="middle" align="center"> <div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Eastern Europe & Central Asia<o:p></o:p></span></b></font></div> </td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"> <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family: Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Early 90's</span></font></div> </td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>270,000<o:p></o:p></span></font></td> <td width=126 valign="middle" align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";letter-spacing: 0pt'>80,000<o:p></o:p></span></font></td> </tr> </table> <p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-left:.75in;text-align:center'><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Source:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><a href="/cgi-bin/good-bye.cgi?url=http://www.unaids.org" target="_blank">UNAIDS</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p> <p> </p> <hr> <table width="24%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" align="center"> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font size="+2"><a name="contents"></a>Contents</font></b></font></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a href="fs_af_summary.html">Summary</a></b></font></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a href="fs_af_background.html">Background</a></b></font></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b>Findings<br> </b><a href="fs_af_problem.html">The problem</a><br> <a href="fs_af_response.html">The Response</a><br> <a href="fs_af_challenge.html">The Challenge</a></font></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Plan of Action<br> </b><a href="fs_af_plan_bgd.html">The Background</a><br> <a href="fs_af_goals.html">The Goals</a><br> <a href="fs_af_initiative.html">The Initiative</a><b> </b></font></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a href="fs_af_conclusion.html">Conclusion</a></b></font></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Attachments</b><br> <a href="fs_af_manifest.html">Trip Manifest</a><br> <a href="fs_af_groups.html">Groups Visited</a><br> <a href="fs_af_agencies.html">US Agencies Engaged</a><br> <a href="fs_af_docs.html">Key References</a></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> <p align="center"> </p> <table border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td colspan="3"> <div align="center"><img src="../images/footer.gif" width="468" height="25" alt="divider"></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><a href="/cgi-bin/pagegen.cgi" target="_top"><img src="../images/home_pin.gif" width="79" height="58" alt="Go to White House Home Page" border="0"></a></div> </td> <td> <div align="center"><a href="../index.html" target="_top"><img src="../images/onap_pin.gif" width="79" height="58" alt="Go to ONAP Home Page" border="0"></a></div> </td> <td> <div align="center"><a href="/WH/html/helpdsk.html" target="_top"><img src="../images/help_pin.gif" width="79" height="58" alt="Go to White House Help Page" border="0"></a></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="18"> <div align="center"><font color="#4A5B59" size="1"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">White House Home</font></b></font></div> </td> <td height="18"> <div align="center"><font color="#4A5B59" size="1"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">ONAP Home Page</font></b></font></div> </td> <td height="18"> <div align="center"><font color="#4A5B59" size="1"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">White House Help</font></b></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </body>