HIV rates fall among South Africa’s teenagers

South Africa’s Aids epidemic, the worst in the world, looks to be bottoming out as infections among children and teenagers declining, according to a new national study out today. Overall, the situation is still grim, with 10.6 per cent of the population, 5.2 million people, infected with HIV – a figure that has hardly budged since the Human Sciences Research Council’s first study in 2002. Women aged between 20 and 34 are the worst affected, with 33% carrying HIV.

But the rate of infections in children and teenagers is falling, the think-tank's study of 23,369 people found. Many more young people also said they were much more likely to use condoms than in past studies."There are promising findings of a changing pattern of HIV infection among children and youth," said Olive Shisana, head of the council and study leader."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," Shisana said.

In children aged two to 14, HIV is down from 5.6 per cent in 2002 to 2.5 per cent last year, the study said.Among young people aged 15 to 24, the rate dropped from a high of 10.3 per cent in 2005 to 8.7 percent last year, with the biggest drops among teenagers, the report said.The drops come as many more young people are using condoms, with 87 percent of young men and 73 percent of young women saying they used a condom during their last sexual encounter.Some 90 per cent of youth said they had received at least some communication about the disease from the government.

The report also showed big differences in the number of cases across different South African regions, with HIV prevalence at 15.8 per cent in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, compared with 3.8 percent in the Western Cape, home to Cape Town.The rate of infection among adults has increased, perhaps because of the government's roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs, which help people live longer. 2002."Although the overall situation remains dire, some solid progress has been achieved in the fight against the disease over the past few years, especially among teenagers and children," the study said."There is therefore a need for the country to re-double its efforts in the fight against HIV if it is to turn the tide among the other age groups," it added.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children