Tuesday last week was International Children’€™s Day. It was also the day on which we heard the news that government had instructed all provinces that had begun implementing an HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Plan to stop enrolling any more children for treatment. Health-e News Service takes a look at the supply of antiretroviral drugs in the public health sector.

Support from friends and family can make all the difference to people living with HIV/AIDS. Lulu Sibam, who together with her husband and child is now on ARV therapy, speaks warmly of the encouraging role played by her family and parents-in-law.

Lulu Sibam is a young mother from Khayelitsha. Her husband and child Mihle have been on antiretroviral therapy since December 2001. Lulu first started treatment in 2003 but dropped out of the Medecins Sans Frontieres programme. She has since re-started her therapy and together with her family is doing well.

As the AIDS epidemic continues to decimate the adult population in southern Africa, the Lesotho government reports that more than 73 000 of its children have been orphaned as a result of the epidemic. A UNICEF report predicts that by 2010 there will be over 41 million orphans in Africa as a whole. In this report we visit Lesotho and discover how AIDS is robbing children of their parents.

Ha bongata ba batho dinaheng tse borwa tsa Afrika bo qetwa ke Phamokathe, mmuso wa naha ya Lesotho o tlaleha hore lefu lena le se le hlodile dikgutsana tse ka nnqane ho 73 000. Mokgatlo wa matjhaba wa UNICEf o re ka selemo sa 2010, kontinente ya Afrika ka bophara, e ka lebella ho eba lehae ho dikgutsana tse dimilione tse 41 ka baka la lefu la Phamokathe. Re ile ra etela naha e nyenyane ya Lesotho ho ya iponela ka moo lefu lena le amohang bana batswadi.