AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
2001 APR 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- One in nine South Africans is infected with HIV, the government said March 20, 2001.
The number of cases is growing in the country that already had the world's largest population of HIV positive people.
In the hard-hit eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, the infection rate was greater than one in every three people - 36.2% last year, up from 32.5% the previous year, a government study said. The study, conducted at 400 clinics countrywide, concluded that about 4.7 million South Africans were HIV positive as of the end of 2000. Previous government estimates had put the figure at 4.2 million, or about one in 10 people.
Based on a sampling of 16,000 pregnant women, the study is considered the most accurate indication to date of the scope of South Africa's AIDs crisis. Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said the figures represented a leveling off from the steep rise in the early to mid-1990s, but said the pattern of infection suggested that prevention efforts needed to target those who were in stable relationships and might have thought they were less vulnerable.
According to the study, rates of infection climbed for women between the ages of 20 and 34, but dropped off slightly among women ...
Source: HighBeam Research, South African Government Says One In Nine Is Now HIV Positive.