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Jet, Dec 20, 1999

The United Nations marked World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 with a new set of sobering statistics on the toll the virus has taken on children.

In a newly released report, U.N. officials estimated that 11 million children have already been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic, and that number will reach 13 million by the end of 2000. Already, 95 percent of those orphans are in sub-Saharan Africa.

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton took up their appeal at a recent U.S. symposium, urging that the orphans not be forgotten once World AIDS Day festivities have ended.

"We call upon all countries, all leaders, all businesses, all families, all citizens to take responsibility for these children and to ensure that the disease that robbed them of their mothers and fathers does not continue to lay waste to their futures," she said.

Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, predicted that "things will get worse before they get better."

Eastern and southern Africa account for only 4.8 percent of the world's population, yet has more than 50 percent of the total 33.6 million people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. U.N. data shows that eastern and southern Africa also account for 60 percent of AIDS deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics indicate that 40,000 new HIV cases are reported each year in the United States. Of that number, more than half occur among Blacks, though Blacks make up 13 percent of the national population.