HIV Positive Children in Zambia Increasing As Services Lack. 24/8/10

Nearly one percent of Zambia's population is made up of HIV positive children

Although more than 95,000 children in Zambia are HIV positive, nearly one percent of the population and few programs exist that focus on care for children living with AIDS in the southern Africa country.

Conversely, millions of dollars in government and international investments have been designated to support prevention and treatment programs for adults living with AIDS in Zambia, where one in five adults is HIV positive.

Nearly one percent of Zambia's population is made up of HIV positive children. However, most HIV/AIDS programs focus on adults.

For HIV positive children in Zambia, many who are AIDS orphans, a host of challenges remain. Access to education is limited and discrimination is common.

"Most of the children living with HIV lack support from the community, NGOs and the government," says Joseph Shimba of Shoulin Community School.

Children have been much affected by the AIDS epidemic in Zambia. Being HIV infected is not the only way that children are affected by HIV and AIDS. In 2007 there were 600,000 AIDS orphans in the country and AIDS orphans made up half of all orphans in the country.

Thousands of these children are abandoned due to stigma or a simple lack of resources, while others run away because they have been mistreated and abused by foster families.

Men are targeting increasingly younger sexual partners whom they assume to be HIV-negative, and the "virgin cure" myth (which wrongly claims that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS) fuels much of the abuse.