This is a picture of infants at the Lily of the Valley hospice for orphans near Durban, South Africa. In African countries that have already had long, severe epidemics, AIDS is generating orphans so quickly that family structures can no longer cope. Traditional safety nets are unravelling as more young adults die of AIDS related illnesses. Families and communities can barely fend for themselves, let alone take care of the orphans. Typically, half of the people with HIV become infected before they are aged 25, developing AIDS and dying by the time they are aged 35, leaving behind a generation of children to be raised by their grandparents or left on their own in child-headed households.

This photo is part of a larger HIV and AIDS picture gallery. For more HIV and AIDS photos visit http://www.avert.org/historyi.htm

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Photo credit: � Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory