Africa's AIDS orphans.
One of the results of the AIDS epidemic that has swept across Africa is the orphaning of millions of children who have lost one or both of their parents to the disease. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 12 million children under age 18 have been orphaned as a result of the death of a parent from AIDS. (The UN identifies a child as an AIDS orphan if even one parent has died from the disease.)Even in those areas of Africa where the spread of HIV--the virus that causes AIDS--has stabilized or declined, the orphan problem will worsen in the future because of the lag time between when parents become infected and when they die. By 2010, experts say, the number of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa will reach more than 18 million.
This graph shows the 15 African countries with the highest numbers of AIDS orphans as of the end of 2003, the year for which the most recent data are available. Use the data in this introduction and graph to answer the questions below.
1. Epidemiologists are doctors who use statistics to study the spread of diseases. An epidemiologist reading the introduction and graph would find that the countries shown account for about what percentage of all AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa? a 85-90 percent c 70-75 percent b 75-80 percent d 65-70 percent 2. The introduction, above, reports the expected rise in the number of AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010. About how many AIDS orphans will there be in Nigeria in 2010 if the rate of increase there is the same as that in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa? a 2 million c 2.7 million b 2.2 million d 3.5 million 3. Not all African countries have high AIDS rates. For example, there are 100 times more AIDS orphans in Burundi than in Gambia, a country not shown on the graph. About how many AIDS orphans are there in Gambia?-- 4. Zambia has about twice as many AIDS orphans as--. 5. In 2003, President Bush pledged $15 billion over five years to fund AIDS projects in 12 African countries, plus Haiti (in the Caribbean) and Guyana (in South America). If the money were divided equally, about how much would go to each African country? a $900 million c $1.5 billion b $1.7 billion d $1.1 billion
1. (a) 85-90 percent.
2. (c) 2.7 million.
3. 2,000.
4. Ivory Coast.
5. (d) $1.1 billion.
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| Publication: | New York Times Upfront |
|---|---|
| Geographic Code: | 60SUB |
| Date: | Mar 7, 2005 |
| Words: | 416 |
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