Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Beijing (Agenzia Fides) - Half a million Chinese children are either orphans of parents who died of AIDS, or they are infected by HIV, or they live with HIV + parents.
UNICEF reports that about 140,000 children have lost one or both parents because of AIDS.
The information is collected by organisation and institutions which collaborate with UNICEF in China.
According to the government Disease Control Centre minors in danger of losing one or both parents by 2010 could be as many as 260,000.
Of the orphans localised only 8,000 receive assistance. UNICEF is asking the local communities to care for minors with AIDS instead of leaving them in orphanages. It is customary to take infected children to institutions because people fear the disease will spread to the rest of the family.
Beijing and the World Health Organisation estimate that 650,000 people in China have been infected with AIDS, other sources speak of six million cases.
Since WHO's warning that by 2010, as many as 10 million people in China could be infected with HIV/AIDS, Beijing has taken a series of security measures to keep to the official figure of 1.5 million in 2010. (AP) (11/7/2007 Agenzia Fides; Righe:20 ; Parole :219)
