World AIDS Day passed Tuesday without extensive fanfare, but for countless orphaned children in many countries, the nightmare of the disease continues long after it claims the lives of their parents.
As many as 40 million youngsters will be orphaned by AIDS by the year 2010, most of them in developing countries where there are inadequate resources to care for them. Fortunately, the United States has recognized the tragedy and is doing something about it. Other Western nations should follow suit.The White House pledged a package of assistance that included $10 million in grants for the care of needy AIDS orphans. That is not a huge sum, but it will have a sizable impact in Third-World nations.
Africa will be the greatest beneficiary. The United Nations AIDS program estimates that nearly 1 million children on that continent have been orphaned by the disease, and another 1 million are infected with the virus. Those are heartbreaking statistics. The grants will be used to provide training for foster families, vocational training, schooling for orphans and improved medical care to diseased children. All are worthy, reasonable efforts.
Financial help is crucial in providing care and treatment to those infected in countries where medical care is poor, unavailable or prohibitively expensive. The vast majority of the 34 million people worldwide afflicted by AIDS could not pay for sustained medical treatments even if they were available. It costs as much as $15,000 for drugs to treat one person for a year, an unfathomable sum for most of the world's disadvantaged population. Assistance from the U.S. and elsewhere helps.
Domestically, the AIDS picture is a bit brighter, with a considerable drop in hospitalization and mortality rates between 1994 and 1997. There are, however, new strains of the HIV virus immune to basic treatments. Medical experts caution that the best way to deal with AIDS is to focus on prevention. The probability of contraction plummets when high-risk behaviors such as promiscuous sex or illicit drug use are shunned. But those infected or left orphaned deserve the best, most compassionate care available.