Jalingo — At least seventeen thousand eight hundred and thirty four children were orphaned by the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in Taraba State as at 2011, the Permanent Secretary, Dr Siman S. Ambita'a, Taraba AIDS Control Agency (TACA) has said.

Dr Ambita'a who addressed newsmen in Jalingo ahead of the 2012 World AIDS Day said the state has a prevalence rate of 5.8 per cent with an estimated 133, 000 testing positive to the virus, saying, however, that the state and the nation at large are working towards "getting zero AIDS related deaths.

He said, although there is no documented evidence of AIDS related deaths in the state, the state is at risk of suffering the socio-economic hardships occasioned by the disease.