What are your sources? Where are you getting the numbers? How do you know they're accurate?
Ok, I'll answer each of those.
1. How many people have HIV/AIDS.By definition this has to be a fairly rough estimate, with numbers differing depending on the source, because HIV tests are expensive and most people with HIV don't know they're infected. I cited a 40 million figure, which was what a 2006 study suggested. In looking into your question, I discovered that the latest research (The 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update published December, 2007) jointly by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization estimated that 33.2 million people worldwide are HIV+. The Update is the closets thing we have to an authoritative source, and its figures are used and cited by the White House, the CDC, the NIH, etc. Source. The same study breaks down HIV/AIDS cases by region and country -- of those 33.2 million, 15.4 million are women, and 2.5 million are children under the age of 15. The study found that AIDS is the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.
how many deaths that have orphaned children.
The same study estimated that there are between 10.5 and 14.6 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS.
The study is a compendium of a bunch of other studies, all of which are cited in the report.
So, we have a “rough estimate” from “latest research” by UNAIDS (UN—aren’t these the same people who brought us the Oil for Food Scandal, Kofi Annan, et al?) and WHO—aren’t these the same people who were kicked out of Angola during a Marburg outbreak for insulting locals?—
I wouldn’t believe the UN or WHO on AIDS, Bird Flu malaria, genocide, or anything else. They are at the mercy of local thugs who tell them what they want to hear. Anyone who gives them any credibility is certainly free to do so...but there’s a reason for the slogan: Get the US out of the UN, and get the UN out of the US.
The same studies cited above state that 800,000 children die annually in Africa from malaria. The UN is currently reviewing bringing back DDT to help alleviate the scourge, which would have been all but eliminated if the UN hadn’t BANNED DDT. People this stupid shouldn’t get US taxpayer dollars to do anything about HIV/AIDS, they’ll only dribble it away, spend it on bribes, buy local armies, and degrade the continent further. Moslems and Chinese are moving into Africa at a huge rate...I bet they’d like to get their hands on some US taxpayer “research and treatment” millions.....I wonder how they’d use it? No doubt in very generous and benevolent ways. /sarc
All the numbers are completely unreliable. Between 10 and 14 million children orphaned by HIV? Since 1981? Which is it? 4 million is quite a bit of leeway, just doesn’t inspire confidence in the accuracy, now, does it?
I say, let Africa wait on US aid dollars until there’s a vaccine. Or let the Chinese develop one. Or the Moslems, those historical medical geniuses. They have plenty of petrodollars and trade imbalance dollars—if they care, and are humane, let the Chinese and Moslems fix it.