A third of Nelson Mandela Bay’s population of about 1,3-million is HIV-positive, making the region’s prevalence the highest in the province, the Eastern Province Herald reported on Wednesday.
The figure was revealed in the annual national ante-natal HIV prevalence study.
The most recent results for the entire Nelson Mandela Bay indicate an infection rate of 32,6%.
The Eastern Cape province, according to the study, recorded a prevalence of 28%, compared to the national average of 29,5%.
The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality intends carrying out studies which could establish the prevalence of the disease among municipal employees and councillors.
Municipal health business unit manager Dr Charmaine Pailman told the newspaper that the province ranked third nationally in HIV prevalence, with KwaZulu-Natal having the highest number.
”The situation is not improving, instead it is getting worse. The prevalence is increasing on an annual basis,” Pailman said.
”People need to wake up,” said DA councillor Anne Knight, who works closely with a number of non-governmental organisations involved in HIV/Aids awareness campaigns.
The highest prevalence is between the ages of 17 and 25.
Dawn Jackson, of the municipality’s Aids Training, Information and Counselling Centre (ATICC), said: ”What we see is the tip of the iceberg.
”It is difficult to correctly estimate the prevalence because what you see is an opportunistic infection. On the death certificate it is not written that a person died of Aids. It’s TB or other diseases.
”The figures are masked because there is no evidence in the diagnosis.”
Jackson said in 2000, about 20% of the province’s pregnant women were HIV positive and the figure rose in 2002 to 23,6%.
She said in 2002 the Port Elizabeth testing site recorded an infection rate of 26%, a figure higher than the province’s average.
Jackson said the following year the figure went up to 27,9%.
”The figures are going up every year. The challenge is to stop new infections,” said Jackson.
”We are prioritising prevention and we have a programme called treatment, care and support in which we work closely with the department of social welfare,” she said.
Pailman said the municipality still did not have an accurate database of how many Aids orphans there were in Mandela Bay.
”However, each year we receive hundreds of applications from Aids orphans asking for assistance, and we help them to receive social grants.”
The municipality has already proposed conducting a study into the impact of the disease among its staff of about 7 000.
Knight said such a study would be very welcome because the council was the biggest employer in the region.
”We need to know the HIV prevalence in this institution so that we can plan accordingly,” said Knight.
She said the disease would affect the municipality’s workforce adversely. The municipality has not yet established how many of its employees are infected, and that is why it is conducting the study.
A similar study is intended for councillors themselves. – Sapa