Business Day (Johannesburg)
Kgomotso Mathe
10 June 2009
Johannesburg — THE prevalence of HIV in children and teenagers between the ages of two and 14 has decreased from 5,6% in 2002 to 2,5% last year, according to the third national HIV prevalence, incidence and communications survey, released yesterday.
"The good news is that the change in HIV prevalence in children is most likely attributable to the successful implementation of several HIV- prevention interventions," said Dr Olive Shisana, CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
These interventions addressed HIV in early childhood, particularly programmes to prevent mother-to- child transmission, she said.
"Interventions need to be targeted to the particular issues in each province, and communication programmes need to focus on expanding their reach and intensify their message," Prof Leickness Simbayi, the study's co-principal investigator, said.
He said teenagers should be strongly discouraged from having older sexual partners, and all sexually active people should limit the number of sexual partners they have.
The survey was conducted by the HSRC, the Medical Research Council, the Centre for Aids Development, Research and Evaluation, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
"Most of the findings are positive, but there are some alarming factors that came up, such as the increase in the HIV prevalence among women aged between 20 and 34," the Treatment Action Campaign's head of policy communication and research, Rebecca Hodes, said.
The survey found HIV prevalence among women aged 25-29 has been 33% over the past three years.
"This highlights the unequal status between men and women -- younger women are getting into transactional sex with older men," Hodes said.
The survey found that SA's HIV epidemic had stabilised at about 11% of the population aged two years and older. At least 5,2-million people in SA were estimated to be living with HIV at the end of last year.
However, the survey found HIV prevalence among adults aged 15-49 had increased between 2002 and last year among the large populations of KwaZulu-Natal (up 10,1%) and in the Eastern Cape (up 5%), with smaller increases in the North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
Despite these increases, condom use had increased among people aged 25-49, Shisana said.
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