Many AIDS Assumptions Are Wrong

Here is an informative excerpt from the article linked above:

"One of the most destructive of the misconceptions that had thus far shaped policy on HIV/AIDS prevention and control was that only orphaned children were affected by the pandemic.

This had fed the "powerful myth" that the majority of children who had lost a parent to AIDS lacked family and social networks and needed to be cared for in an orphanage.

JLICA's research showed 88% of children designated as orphans actually had a surviving parent.

The NGO called on the United Nations to change its definition of an orphan as "a child who has lost one or both parents" because the definition had distorted programme goals by obscuring the fact that most of the children defined as AIDS orphans continued to receive support from their families or extended kin.

"The overwhelming majority of children who have lost a parent to AIDS can and should remain in the care of their families, provided that those families receive appropriate support," JLICA said in its report.

The NGO stated clearly that "poverty does not cause AIDS", although it added that extreme poverty was the backdrop to much of the AIDS pandemic and AIDS did cause and compound poverty.

"Over 60% of children in southern Africa live in poverty. Families who are already poor when HIV strikes may be unable to compensate for further loss of income that occurs as a result of AIDS-related illness or death. Poverty is the single biggest barrier to the scale-up of HIV treatment and prevention.

"Poor people's capacity to access and benefit from services is limited when they lack the resources to purchase food and medicines, pay for transport to service facilities and compensate for income that is sacrificed to healthcare," JLICA said."