AIDS is the number one killer in Africa. In Africa, nearly one out of every four people is HIV positive. This disease has left an estimated 13.4 million African children under the age of fifteen without one or both parents. By the end of the year 2000, about thirteen-million children were orphaned by AIDS. Many analysts view orphan hood a more serious problem than increases in child mortality in Africa. .
Orphaned children numbers have increased significantly over the years due to the many diseases lingering in Africa. AIDS and many other diseases threaten the lives of millions of parents each day. AIDS is popular in Africa due to a number of social and cultural factors. Some factors that contribute to the high rate of AIDS include the high rates of rape in many African countries, the low age of sexual initiation among females, and the age difference between young women and their first male sexual partners who a lot of times are middle-aged men seeking virgins as sexual partners protect themselves from AIDS. When the parents die from AIDS the children are left to tend to themselves, even children as young as the age of four. The children often suffer from starvation and malnutrition. .
In Africa, young orphan children are very common due to the high death rates of AIDS victims. The impact of AIDS on the region is such that it is now affecting demographics. It is changing mortality and fertility rates, reducing lifespan, and ultimately affecting population growth. A number of studies have now showen that HIV infection significantly reduces the fertility levels of HIV positive women in the African countries. Studies on fertility changes in twenty African countries found a twenty-five to forty percent decline in fertility among HIV positive women in contrast to HIV negative women in the same area. HIV decreases fertility among HIV positive women as a because of both genetic and behavioral factors.
