AIDS to orphan 40m children

AIDS will leave 40 million children worldwide orphaned by 2010, with male sexual behaviour “largely responsible”, a United Nations report said yesterday.

The study said AIDS infected 14,000 men, women and children daily and was the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.

It said the disease had become the major cause of adult deaths in Africa, with life expectancy falling and the possibility of the sub-Saharan region having 71 million fewer people in eight years because of the epidemic.