Ethiopia: 250,000 children with HIV

More than a quarter of a million children in Ethiopia are carriers of the HIV virus, which causes AIDS.

The Ethiopian Health Ministry confirmed these figures yesterday and appealed to the country’s political class to address the problem before there is a human catastrophe. It is claimed that educational programmes are essential because a great part of the population is ignorant of the causes and effects of the HIV virus, which has already caused 17,000,000 deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Swaziland, for example, a quarter of the population is sero-positive.

UNICEF is currently working in Ethiopia, training dozens of gynaecologists and midwives to work with women who are HIV positive. Ethiopia currently has 750,000 AIDS orphans and 3 million HIV positive adults, in a population universe of 62.8 million people.

TIMOTHY BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru LISBON PORTUGAL