The prevalence of HIV among health workers in South Africa is ”very high” and they need to be targeted with anti-retroviral treatment as part of a multipronged approach to augment the sector, the South African Medical Journal (SAMJ) warns.
”Given the high prevalence of HIV (of 15,7%) in the younger population of health workers, it is critical to increase the numbers of nurses to be trained, particularly if one considers that from 1997 to 2001 the country experienced a 6,86% decline in the number of nurses registering with the South African Nursing Council,” says the October edition of the SAMJ.
In outlining their research, the authors said a stratified cluster sample was drawn of 5% of health facilities in the country representative of the public and private health sectors in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the North West.
The sample was designed to obtain a nationwide representative sample of medical professionals and non-professional health workers, with a subsample comprising health workers in four provinces tested for HIV status.
In the results of a sample of 721 health workers and a response rate of 82,5% or 595 respondents, the study found that an estimated 15,7% of health workers employed in the public and private health facilities located in the four provinces had HIV/Aids in 2002.
Among younger health workers, the risk was even higher. This group, aged between 18 and 35 years, had an estimated HIV prevalence of 20%, with non-professionals having an HIV prevalence of 20,3% while professionals had a prevalence of 13,7%.
The article said given the fact that health workers are ”critical” in managing HIV/Aids patients, it is important that planners have information on health workers’ sero status.
The study also found that health workers’ levels of education were not significantly related to the HIV prevalence, but marital status was strongly related to it.
”Health workers who were unmarried were more likely to be HIV-positive than those who were married,” read the article.
The authors said the high prevalence of HIV in the health sector has serious implications for the health system, with increased absenteeism and non-infected workers becoming overloaded with work, leading to lower morale and burnout.
Occupational exposure to HIV is highly likely in health care settings, with the authors saying infected workers are likely to be ”doubly infected” with opportunistic diseases such as tuberculosis.
Interestingly, the authors noted that while the risk of health workers being infected by patients is high, HIV-infected health workers are ”less likely” to transmit HIV to their patients.
The multi-authored article also said that in addition to training more nurses, the national Department of Health needs to conduct an in-depth investigation into the reasons causing nurses to leave the profession and/or emigrate.
The authors noted that another area of concern is the closure of nursing colleges in the country, and the proliferation of private training colleges with ”serious” accreditation problems. – Sapa