Desmond Chris
FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, HSPH, Harvard University, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
AIDS Care. 2009;21 Suppl 1(S1):98-104. doi: 10.1080/09540120903033037.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic has many serious consequences for children. These consequences are, however, rarely inevitable. Families can provide a protective barrier that deflects blows, or minimises their impact and a supportive nurturing environment that can help children recover from harm. If strong enough, and with sufficient access to quality services and support from communities, families can reduce the impacts of HIV/AIDS on children to negligible levels in most areas of impact. It is apparent that the impacts felt by children are not simply unfortunate, inevitable consequences of this epidemic. A strong and supported family with good access to quality services can deflect almost all of the impact. It is as a result of an interaction of the context of poverty, which weakens families, and a failure to adequately respond, that impacts are felt by children.
艾滋病毒/艾滋病疫情给儿童带来了许多严重后果。然而，这些后果很少是不可避免的。家庭可以提供一个保护屏障，抵御打击，或尽量减少其影响，还能营造一个支持性的养育环境，帮助儿童从伤害中恢复过来。如果家庭足够强大，并且能够充分获得优质服务和社区支持，那么在大多数受影响领域，家庭可以将艾滋病毒/艾滋病对儿童的影响降至可忽略不计的水平。显然，儿童所感受到的影响并非仅仅是这场疫情不幸且不可避免的后果。一个强大且得到支持、能够充分获得优质服务的家庭几乎可以抵御所有影响。正是由于贫困环境削弱了家庭，且未能做出充分应对，儿童才会受到影响。
