Haiti has a population of 7.5 million, with 3.2 million children under the age of 15 years. Child health status remains poor in Haiti, with an infant mortality rate of 79 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 and an under-five mortality rate of 123 deaths per 1,000 live births. Haiti is one of two Caribbean nations selected for assistance by the President’s 14-country Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. UNAIDS estimates that adult HIV prevalence was 6.1 percent in 2001, the highest prevalence rate in the Latin America/Caribbean region. Approximately 12,000 children aged 0 to 14 were living with HIV/AIDS in 2001.
The estimated percentage of children orphaned by AIDS increased from 26.9 percent of all orphans in 1995 to 43.2 percent in 2001. By 2010, a projected 200,000 children – nearly half of all of Haiti’s orphans – will have been orphaned because of AIDS. The number of orphaned children in Haiti has remained relatively stable, and the data suggest the number is likely to decrease during this decade from an estimated 462,000 in 2001 to 404,000 by 2010.
Haiti’s three regions have similar percentages of children who have lost at least one parent. The South region has the highest percentage of orphaned children (11.6 percent of all children) and the North the lowest (8.8 percent). Between 1994/95 and 2000, the percent of orphans decreased in the Metropolitan Area and the North region. The percent of double orphans (children who have lost both parents) decreased in all regions during the same time period.
Differences among the orphan estimates and projections of various organizations occur due to differences in methodologies, definitions, and demographic and epidemiological assumptions. Children on the Brink and UNAIDS estimate the number of orphans using mathematical models, estimations, and projections based on certain assumptions about the impact of HIV/AIDS on adult mortality, fertility, and child survival. Surveys such as DHS and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) are based on data gathered through household surveys of representative samples of the national population. These surveys may underestimate the number of orphans because they fail to count orphans in institutions or on the street.