One of the greatest threats to the realisation of child rights in South Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa is the HIV/Aids pandemic, the University of Cape Town’s Children’s Institute said on Tuesday.
”The illness and death of adults as a result of HIV/Aids has a profound impact on the survival, development and protection of children in South Africa,” the institute said.
According to a report released by the university’s Centre for Actuarial Research, about 6,5-million South Africans are estimated to be HIV-positive, including 3,2-million women of childbearing age (15 to 49).
For each man between the ages of 15 and 24 who is infected with HIV, 4 young women are infected.
It says that about 75% of HIV-infected people in South Africa are in stages one and two of the disease’s progression, therefore they have not yet developed symptoms and many do not know their status.
Between January and December last year 89 000 children were infected with the virus as a result of being born to an HIV-positive mother. This figure is around 7,5%of the total number of babies born during this period.
The institute warned that without access to health care services that could prevent the transmission of HIV/Aids from mother to child, the cumulative number of HIV-infected children in South Africa would continue to grow.
”Without access to the necessary basic health care services and support, most of these children will require repeated and prolonged hospital admissions — placing a massive burden on health facilities — and will die before their 5th birthday.
”Improved health service delivery to HIV-positive children is urgently needed as part of a comprehensive national treatment plan,” it said.
Last year alone, about 150 000 children lost a mother to Aids. The institute said that without any major new health interventions, close to two-million children would lose a mother by 2010, and this would mainly be due to Aids.
Children in South Africa faced many vulnerabilities before their caregiver died. These included children having to look after the sick adult, not being able to attend school, and a loss of earnings as the adult was not able to work.
”The Children’s Institute therefore supports the call for urgently improved and accessible poverty alleviation mechanisms as part of a comprehensive package of care and support for all children in South Africa.”
The institute said that in heavily HIV-affected communities — the majority of which were poor — the impact of HIV/Aids was felt collectively, placing an enormous strain on community structures and formal and informal support systems.
Households that previously supported one another, through the sharing of resources and responsibility for care, were now unable to do so as household members fell ill or died as a result of HIV/Aids.
”As increasing numbers of households are affected by illness and death, it is inevitable that informal networks of inter-household support — often referred to as the ”social safety net” — will be weakened,” it said.
”This has an impact on all children, not just those directly affected by HIV/Aids.”
The institute said the provision of anti-retrovirals in the public sector was a crucial step towards decreasing the number of children who would be made vulnerable as a result of HIV/Aids.
It warned that the stage of the pandemic in South Africa this year was such that the country was 12 years away from experiencing the peak in the number of orphans.
”We currently face an equally large and more immediate service need that is often neglected: supporting the large numbers of children currently living with, and often caring for, terminally ill adults and other children.
”Well-grounded strategies and interventions put in place now will lay the foundation for a response that can grow with the size of the orphan population and should strive to appropriately address the needs of children currently living with sick adults,” it said.
Child Protection Week, which aims among other things to highlight the plight of abused children, is currently being observed in South Africa. – Sapa