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The Direct and Indirect Affect of Hiv/Aids on Children in Africa

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The Direct and Indirect Effects of HIV/AIDS on Children and Youth in Africa
Rojish Thomas
English 202A
June 21, 2012

The Direct and Indirect Effects of HIV/AIDS on Children and Youth in Africa HIV and AIDS are two of the most prevalent illnesses around the world today. HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, leads to AIDS, or the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The disease damages a person’s body by destroying the blood cells that work to fight diseases; or in other words, by destroying a person’s immune system (“Basic Information about HIV and AIDS”, 2012). There are many adults all around the world who have acquired and have passed away from this disease. Africa is well known to have the highest rates of HIV/AIDS than any other continent in the whole world. However, not many people realize how much the disease has affected children and youth along with adults. Children and youth in Africa suffer from HIV/AIDS in both direct and indirect manners. The direct effect of HIV/AIDS on children in Africa is the children themselves suffering from the disease. Children and youth indirectly suffer from the diseases as a result of their parents or siblings being diagnosed with AIDS. They then must take care of their family members although the children may be very young; they are even poorer than they were before with their parents unable to work because of the disease; and in many cases they are orphaned and left to fend for themselves and their siblings to find food, clothing, and other basic necessities of life. There are many statistics to show the prevalence of HIV/AIDS around the world as well as in the continent of Africa itself. As described in the Progress Report 2011, at the end of 2010 there were 3.4 million children living with HIV around the world (WHO, UNICEF, and UNAIDS; 2011). The Progress Report of 2011 also states that most children living

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