Children, youngsters more severely threatened by AIDS ( 2003-10-29 09:16) (Xinhua)
About one third of the 40 million AIDS victims in the world are young people
below the age of 25, according to sources from the ongoing China Children's AIDS
Protection and Treatment Forum.
There are 15,000 people infected with AIDS every day, 60 percent of whom are
children and young people, according to the sources.
Prof. Zhao Yuqi, with the Medical College of America's Northwestern
University, said at the forum that there are at least 3.2 million children in
the world, aged below 15, who have died of AIDS. Meanwhile, another more than 11
million children in the world have become orphans due to the fatal disease.
The professor estimated that by 2010, there would be more than 40 million
children in the world who would lose their parents because of AIDS.
Nowadays, the phenomenon of more and more young people becoming infected with
AIDS has attracted worldwide attention. During the forum, the organization
committee invited foreign specialists to give three-day training courses on AIDS
protection and treatment of children to more than 80 Chinese
pediatricians.
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