Review 2003 asks the question: how does the epidemic impact on families and the personal relationships between family members - between partners, between husbands and wives, between parents and their children and between siblings?

This paper examines and questions the predictions found in the academic and policy literature of social breakdown in Southern Africa in the wake of anticipated high rates of orphanhood caused by the AIDS epidemic.

As the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa grows in scope and intensity, the situation of children has become more precarious. Advances in the well-being of children in terms of social welfare and health, achieved over several decades, are being compromised.