The AIDS epidemic has consequences at all levels of the African population. The family unit, however, feels the effects of AIDS in a very personal way. When parents, children, siblings, and extended family get sick and die of AIDS, the disease permanently changes the structure of African families.

Children are left orphans without parents to care for them. And communities are overwhelmed and unable to care for all the children of AIDS victims. Families are unable to continue funeral traditions and proper mourning periods due to the vast numbers of people dying of the disease. In 1998, there were 5,500 funerals a day for people dying of AIDS *.

As teenagers, young adults, pregnant women, and parents begin to die of AIDS, entire generations of Africans will be scarred by AIDS.

The average life expectancy for adults living in Sub-Saharan Africa will fall dramatically as a result of HIV/AIDS.

83% of all deaths due to AIDS worldwide have been in Sub-Saharan Africa. These premature deaths decrease measure for average life expectancy. (UNAIDS)

More than just a number, this measure indicates how long people live as potentially productive members of society.

For example, in South Africa, 13% of pregnant teens tested for HIV were positive. These teens and their children will die of AIDS.

In Ethiopia, 35.4% of women and 10.7% of men, aged 20-24, are HIV positive.

Instead of being the next generation of businessmen, politicians, workers, and family heads, these men and women will be the next generation of AIDS victims.

HIV has a long latency period. People infected with HIV may not exhibit symptoms of the virus for a number of years.

Many people currently living with HIV are parents.

In the coming years, the number of orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase exponentially.

The graph to the right, predicting the orphans in Zimbabwe due to AIDS, is just one example of the harrowing prediction for the future of Sub-Saharan Africa's children.

Currently, over 95% of all AIDS orphans have been African.

Learn how African countries have responded to the threat of AIDS to their population.