The Progress of Nations 2000

DATA BRIEFS: PROGRESS AND DISPARITY

Another face of AIDS: 860,000
children without teachers

An estimllated 860,000 children in
subil-Saharaln Africa lost their teachers
to A ll )S in 1999. Children in Kenya,
Nigeria and South Africa are most
seri)ously affected by these losses.
Fo)r reasons that are not entirely
clear, Ill V seroprevaleiice is very
high aii)ong teachers and school
atliiiniistrators. Zambia, for example, recor(lded 1,300 teacher deaths
in t he first 10 months of 1998, more
than twice the number of deaths in
1997 andl two thirds the number of
inew teachlers trained annually. In
thie Central African Republic, between 1996 and 1998 almost as
imany tv eachlers diedl as retired.
Although HIV/AlI)S affects all
sectors, its most profound effects are
conceit rated ill education. Now, all
over sub-Saharan Africa, hard-won
gains in schooll enrolment and the
returns onI investments countries
have imadle to improve education
are being eroded. Schooling is disruilpltedl when teachers are absent
froim class dlie to illness, death or
the need to care for ill family members, or when a decreasing numbler

Teacherless children
Primary schoolchildren who lost
a teacher to AIDS, 1999

South Africa
Kenya
Zimbabwe
Nigeria
Uganda
Zambia
Malawi
Ethiopia
Tanzania
Congo, Dem. Rep.

100,000
95,000
86,000
85,000
81,000
56,000
52,000
51,000
49,000
27,000

larger share of the household budget. In some countries, parents are
keeping their daughters, in partictular, out of school for fear they might
become infected.
In a nunmber of countries, public
speinding is being shifted away fron
education to cope with other aspects
of the AIDS crisis, which means less
funding is available to hire and train
teachers to relplace those who have
died. Educational quality also suffers
when fewer resources are available
for classrooms and materials. Discriminatory attitudes and practices
towar(ls AIDS-affected individuals
interfere with the learning process,
and high rates of teacher turnover
and fluctuating nunmbers of students
constrain educational planning.
However, elucation iiust be safeguarded in the face )of the AIDS
crisis, as schools are key to reducing
the inimpact of the dlisease. Countries' efforts to develop school-based
programmnes to control IIIV/AIDS
have b)een dealt a mortal blow, and
assistance from the international
conimnunity is urgeiitly nieeded.

Source: UNAIDS, UNICEF.
of teachers have to take on larger
classes. H I V-positive teachers are
leaving schools in remote areas
that lack health care facilities and
requestinig postings in locations
near hospitals.
H 1 V/Al I)S also affects children
who drop out of school when their
families can no longer afford their
school costs because the )readwinner
is ill and is no longer working, or
where AID)S treatiments eat up a

Asia strives to
control epidemic
India is now swamped with the
second largest number of HIVinfected people, and the disease
is menacing populations in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and
other Asian countries.
UNICEF, other UN agencies,
national governments and NGOs
have initiated several programmes
to combat this epidemic.
SIn Cambodia, efforts are
being made to build capacity
among regional and local organizations with access to high-risk
populations to develop and maintain prevention and care programmes targeted at primary,
secondary and vocational school
students, out of school youth,
women of reproductive age,
women and children living with
HIV/AIDS and to the media.
* In Thailand, which has one
of Asia's most mature epidemics
with close to 755,000 people living
with HIV/AIDS, child-friendly
community schools have been
created to promote health, psychosocial development and resilience for children and youth
affected by HIV/AIDS.
* Myanmar is considered to
have one of the fastest growing
HIV/AIDS epidemics in Asia,
with an estimated 530,000 people infected. A programme called
SHAPE (school-based healthy
living and HIV/ AIDS prevention
education project) is under way
to address this grave problem.
A project on the social marketing of condoms, run by Population Services International, is
helping expand knowledge on
HIV prevention and the availability of condoms throughout
the country. But its (itreach is
still very limited. Inadequate support from donors and the Myanmar government's own ambivalent
attitude regarding the seriousness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic
are leading to efforts that are not
commensurate with the magni
tude of thle problem.

Low rates must not stall action
If tihe AID)S el idenmic has taught the world any- Number of young people living with HI)
thing, it is that any HI V-prevalence rate needs to be in selected countries
regarldedl as a clear and present danger. The list (at Female (15-24) Ma
righ i) highlights how prevalence percentages do noit Number
ieeh to be l high to be lisastrous. In India, the rates (of Country %HIV+ HIV+ %HIV0.6% among 15- to 24-year-old women andlil 0.4% Bangladesh 0.01% 840 0.01
Japan 0.01% 510 0.030
amng ien of the same age translate int 0570,000 China 0.02% 23,000 0.1
"t aien all 340,000 uetiinfected, the se((ii( high- Hungary 0.02% 120 0.08&%
est IIIlllher (if infections after South Afiia. Sili- Romania 0.02% 350 0.02%
Bolivia 0.03% 250 0. 1
larly, in tile IRussian Fe(teratioi, rates nif 0.1% Germany 0.04% 1,900 0.1%
amonig women and ().3% amlong men mean 14,000 Pakistan 0.04% 6,400 0.06%
womien and 29,000 men carry tile virus. United Kingdom 0.05% 11700 0.1%
Mexico 0.06% 6,300 0.4%
Not so long ago, current high-prevalence )cor- Netherlands 0.08% 750 0.20
tries prlobally had rates comilparable to these hut Russian Fed. 0.1% 14,000 0.3%
failed to take the containment steps ineeded. France 0.2% 8,800 0.30
Jamaica 0.4% 970 0.6'%
No pririty caii he greater than to steil the spread India 0.6% 570,000 0.4%
(of Al I)S through well-conceived and generouisly Haiti 2.9% 25,000 4.9%
funded prevenition and management |)rograniiinlies. Source UNAIDS/UNICEF, 2000.

V/AIDS
le (15-24)
Number
+ HIV+

0
YO
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
YO
0

1,600
2,300
120,000
600
340
1,000
4,100
8,700
3,300
40,000
1,700
29,000
13,000
1,400
340,000
42,000

n)