of 2003, approximately 15 million children have lost one or both parents due to HIV/AIDS. By 2010, this number is expected to increase to 25 million. Learn more about USAID's efforts to improve the lives of children affected by HIV/AIDS.

By the end of 2004, an estimated 15 million children had lost one or both parents to AIDS—the vast majority in Africa—and many millions more were affected. Risk factors such as missed opportunities for education, ill health, abuse and exploitation threaten their most fundamental rights and keep them enmeshed in poverty. The pandemic is deepening poverty in entire communities and societies, with children often being the first to feel the brunt of the deprivation.

the end of 2007, Africa was home to an estimated 11.4 million children under 18 who had lost at least one parent to AIDS.10

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency ["im-you-no-de-fish-en-see"] Virus -- is the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). HIV attacks and kills the cells in our bodies that keep us from getting diseases. This makes people with HIV get illnesses that healthy people do not get. When a person with HIV gets very sick from pneumonia, some kinds of cancer, and other life-threatening diseases, they are said to have AIDS. AIDS is a fatal disease. Here is more information on HIV/AIDS.

Around 90 percent of children contract the virus by mother to child transmission. Children can also be infected via blood/blood products if these are not screened for HIV and by contaminated needles. Also, there are many reported cases of children or adolescents in the age of 10-19 years who have contracted HIV through injecting drugs and through unprotected or forced sexual intercourse with an older infected person.

Of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, nearly 2.7 million are children under the age of 15, and 11.8 million are young people aged 15-24. An estimated 3 million people die from AIDS-related causes every year.

Though the exact number is not known, World Vision cares for hundreds of thousands of children orphaned by AIDS in Africa and other regions. A significant number of World Vision's 2.4 million sponsored children — especially the more than 800,000 sponsored children in Africa — may have been orphaned or made vulnerable to the disease. Also, World Vision mobilizes and trains volunteer caregivers to assist orphans and vulnerable children.

Call the California HIV/AIDS Hotline at 800/367-AIDS (English/Spanish). TDD: 888/225-AIDS. For more information about the hotline, click here.

Globally, 45 percent of adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. By region, this percentage varies considerably, from 57% in Sub-Saharan Africa, to 28% in East Asia and the Pacific. In 2004, 17.6 million women were living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

HIV destroys a certain kind of blood cell (CD4+ T cells) which is crucial to the normal function of the human immune system. In fact, loss of these cells in people with HIV is an extremely powerful predictor of the development of AIDS. Studies of thousands of people have revealed that most people infected with HIV carry the virus for years before enough damage is done to the immune system for AIDS to develop.

I - Immuno-deficiency: because the effect of the virus is to create a deficiency, a failure to work properly, within the body's immune system. V - Virus: because this organism is a virus, which means one of its characteristics is that it is incapable of reproducing by itself. It reproduces by taking over the machinery of the human cell.

Although there have been many advances in HIV treatments and therapies in recent years that have dramatically improved the quality of life and life expectancy of persons with HIV/AIDS in the US and other developed countries, there is, as of yet, no cure.

HIV/AIDS is treated with two groups of medicines. One group of medicines is used to slow the spread of the virus. The other group of medicines is used to fight illnesses that are caused by a weakened immune system. These medicines cannot cure HIV/AIDS, but they do help people live a healthier life for a longer period of time than if they did not take any medicine. Finding and treating HIV/AIDS early is the best way to take care of yourself.

HIV/AIDS cannot be cured. That is why it is so important to keep from getting it in the first place. Here are ways to keep from getting HIV/AIDS. ask your sex partner(s) if he or she has HIV/AIDS or other STDs, has had sex with someone who had HIV/AIDS or other STDs, or has sores, rashes, or discharge in the genital area. Do not share razors or anything that might touch blood, semen, or vaginal fluids of an infected person.

HIV is a very delicate virus and does not last long outside of the body. Nor is it spread through casual contact. Generally, the virus is transmitted when sufficient quantities of blood are introduced into the body of another. The structure of a tattoo needle does not lend itself to HIV transmission. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) there has never been a case of HIV transmission from tattooing in the United States.

According to the CDC, in 2000, an estimated 850,000-950,000 people in the United States were living with HIV and approximately one fourth of these people did not know they were infected. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that there are 42 million people in the world living with HIV and 3.2 million of those are children under the age of 15. Over half of all adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. In 2002, approximately 5 million people were newly infected with HIV.

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), is the virus that affects the immune system and causes AIDS. AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV slowly weakens the immune system's defense against other infections. Currently, there is no vaccine to prevent HIV infection and there is no cure for AIDS.

The modes of transmission are constant. Transmission is sexual (semen or cervical secretions to blood), parenteral (blood to blood), by sharing needles, and perinatal (blood to blood, mother to fetus). There is no evidence that HIV/AIDS is spread by any form of casual contact.

Research indicates that HIV is NOT transmitted by casual contact, such as touching or hugging; sharing household items such as utensils, towels, and bedding; contact with sweat or tears; sharing facilities such as swimming pools, saunas, hot tubs, or toilets with HIV-infected people; and coughs or sneezes. HIV transmission requires intimate contact with infected blood or body fluids (vaginal secretions, semen, pre-ejaculation fluid, and breast milk).

There were 30 children orphaned as a result of the bombing and their families are currently raising all of the children. No orphaned children entered the state foster care system.