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HIV decimating S Africa's children, says new report

More than 700,000 South African children aged 14 years and younger are HIV-positive, according to figures reported on Thursday.

A survey by the Human Sciences Research Council found the AIDS epidemic was as widespread among the country's young as in the population at large. An estimated 5.7 million of 45 million people are infected, giving the nation the largest HIV-positive population in the world.

"These are shocking figures that highlight the urgent need to get effective treatment to our young people," said Rukia Cornelius, a spokeswoman for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).

The survey is expected to place more pressure on South African President Thabo Mbeki to improve efforts to prevent and treat the disease. Mbeki's government has been widely criticized for reacting too slowly to the AIDS crisis.

Younger children are believed to have contracted the virus from their mothers, and older children through sexual abuse.

Olive Shisana, the study's chief researcher, told ThisDay newspaper that the risk among children had been underestimated.

"It appears that children run a much greater risk of contracting the disease than previously thought," she said.

The survey also showed that 3.3 percent of children between two and 18 had lost one or both parents to AIDS.

The UN estimates that the disease has orphaned 660,000 South African children.

The infection rates are higher for children in "informal settlements," the term used for squatter camps on the outskirts of major cities.
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