Last updated September 2009
Abstract:
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has given rise to major demographic changes, including family poverty and a disturbing number of orphans, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria ranks second among sub-Saharan African countries in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS. Nigeria is estimated to have the highest number of AIDS orphans. There were an estimated 1 million maternal AIDS orphans in 2001, and the number may exceed 2 million by 2015. The social and developmental implications of this pose a serious challenge for the fight against the disease and its economic impacts on families and the nation. Evidence-based programming underscores the importance of collecting observational data to design and evaluate the health and economic cost of AIDS orphans at the household and community levels. Analysis of cost of care, social consequences and coping strategies at household level aimed at populations or specific subgroups may produces data that are informative, insightful and broadly useful in the planning of activities to cater for children orphaned by AIDS with the ultimate goal of reducing poverty, first at household then community at large. This study therefore aims to evaluate the cost of care, social consequences, and coping strategies of AIDS orphans living with their surviving parent or another family in selected rural and urban towns of South-west of Nigeria for the purpose of providing data that may be used to formulate policies and programs that will address the problems of AIDS orphan and related impacts.
Contact Information:
Adebola Orimadegun,
beorimadegun@yahoo.com, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria