South Africa is burdened with one of the fastest growth rates of HIV infections in the world, with 25% of women tested at antenatal clinics infected, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said on Friday.
This figure — applying to the year 2000 — was up from 1% from ten years before, he noted.
Speaking at the release of case studies on the prevention and treatment of HIV/Aids at the Human Sciences Research Council’s conference centre in Pretoria, he said South Africa’s HIV figures show that infection rates “are higher among women than men”.
“The unequal balance of power between men and women is seen as the main contributory factor to the spread of the epidemic,” he said.
“The most affected people are in the reproductive age group between 15 and 49 years, and this is also the most economically active group of the population in any society.”
The minister said the disease “is killing people in their most productive years of life, decimating the workforce, impoverishing households, shredding traditional safety nets and tearing the social fabric of communities, for many the only reliable support systems”.
The impact was being felt by millions of individuals and households, business, organisations and government.
“It robs children of their childhood and forces them to assume adult responsibilities. There are 16,3-million children in South Africa, of which two thirds live below the poverty line, and one fifth of children do not live with their mothers.”
“Children who are born HIV-positive or who have lost one or both parents due to HIV/Aids are among the most exposed of all. They are often at greater risk of illness, abuse and sexual exploitation than children orphaned by other causes.”
It was, said the minister, clear that the response to HIV/Aids cannot be sectoral but should be multi-sectoral.
“There is a great need, therefore, to forge constructive, cross-sectoral partnerships between civil society, the public sector and the private sector with clearly structured interventions to integrate HIV/Aids initiatives into the corporate sphere.”
Intensified advocacy, education and communication were required to change behaviour, “destigmatise the disease” and create community acceptance and support, he said. – I-Net Bridge