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SOUTH AFRICA: Child AIDS risk higher than previously thought

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 13 May (PLUSNEWS) - Nearly seven percent of South African children aged between two and nine are HIV-positive, a survey by the country's Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) revealed on Wednesday.

This offers grim new data on a country struggling with the world's worst HIV/AIDS pandemic, says the HSRC. An estimated 5.3 million of South Africa's 45 million people are HIV-positive.

The survey suggests that parentless children are at highest risk of infection, with an estimated 12.7 percent of orphans under the age of 18 already living with HIV/AIDS.

HSRC executive director Dr Olive Shisana was quoted by Reuters as saying: "The risk of HIV/AIDS among children has received little attention in South Africa ... it appears that children run a much greater risk of contracting the disease than was previously thought."

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