AIDS deaths fuelling orphan numbers

MALAWI: AIDS deaths fuelling orphan numbers

JOHANNESBURG, 5 Oct 2005 (PLUSNEWS) - Malawi's annual HIV/AIDS death rate is fuelling the nation's orphan and vulnerable children situation, a senior government official has said.

According to Health Minister Hetherwick Ntaba, 70,000 people were dying annually from AIDS-related illnesses, and the pandemic had claimed some 650,000 people over the past two decades.

The local Chronicle newspaper quoted Ntaba as saying, "At present 50 percent of the country's 850,000 orphans are a direct result of AIDS-related deaths."

In 2003 Malawi's National AIDS Commission estimated that about 1 million adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS.

[ENDS]

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