Abuja — About two million children have lost their parents to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, while one in every 10 households now provides care for an orphan, says a United Nations report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.

The report, which shows a leap in the spread of the disease, attributed the increase in the rate of infections to lack of

adequate information about how the disease spreads.

Acting Country Public Affairs Officer, United States Embassy, Mr Timothy Gerhardson, said this at a media interactive session organised by the Embassy, in commemoration of the 2007 International Children's Day in Nigeria.

Gerhardson said the United States Government has over the last four years, provided more than $614milion in support of a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care programme in Nigeria.

The assistance which comes under the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is administered through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Defense (DoD) and the Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the United States Embassy in Nigeria.

US inter-agency team also works with the Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, National Agency for the Control of HIV and AIDS (NACA), as well as the Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria for effective integration with the Nigerian programme.