Since its outbreak, AIDS has caused the deaths of more than 20 million people. It has shattered families and left them destitute. It has orphaned more than 14 million children, a number that is expected to more than triple by 2010. And in the developing world, it continues to erode prospects for development in countries where men and women in their most productive years are dying and societal and family structures are coming undone.
Today, more than 95 percent of the estimated 40 million people infected with the HIV virus live in the developing world. In poor countries where resources for health care are scarce, and even clean water can be hard to come by, the means to battle the virus through prevention and awareness programs are often unavailable. Education, a tool essential for development, is being compromised by a dwindling supply of both teachers and students -- particularly girls who must care for their younger siblings when a parent dies or becomes ill. Consequently, the impact of AIDS and the potential for future damage to societies and economies in the developing world is particularly devastating.


An estimated 40 million people worldwide are infected with the HIV virus; more than 20 million have died from AIDS.

In 2001, 5 million people were newly infected, and 3 million died.

About one-third of people living with HIV/AIDS are 15-24 years of age.

More than 70 percent of those infected live in sub-Saharan Africa
More than 38 percent of adults in Botswana are infected with HIV.
To date, the AIDS pandemic has left behind more than 14 million orphans, more than 92 percent of whom live in Africa

More than 7 million people in Asia and the Pacific are living with HIV/AIDS.
AIDS is the leading cause of death in Thailand.
Women now account for nearly 50 percent of all HIV/AIDS-infected adults.
SOURCE: UN AIDS REPORT, 12/2001

As we celebrate our youth, lets consider it imperative to reflect soberly on the damage caused by HIV/AIDS in the recent age, its predominance among the youth, and on ways to capsize the already overbearing budge.