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HIV/AIDS survey gets upbeat government response
Liz Clarke. The Mercury. 10 December 2002. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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The principal investigator of the Human Sciences Research Council's report on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa has welcomed the "encouraging" response from the government to the 120-page document released at the weekend.
Durban-based Mark Colvin, a research scientist with the South African Medical Research Council, said that he was "upbeat" about the way the report had been received "at the highest levels" and was confident that the country was on track to address the pandemic in a "meaningful" way.
The research document, which canvassed more than 9 000 people during the 18-month study, dealt with several key issues, including overwhelming support by the public on the use of antiretroviral drugs and the impact of HIV/AIDS on young children.
Department of health spokesperson Jo-Anne Collinge said that the survey - the first systematically-sampled national study of HIV/AIDS, funded by the Nelson Mandela Foundation - "gives cause for hope as well as a reason" to intensify action to combat HIV/AIDS.
The results were, she said, "broadly consistent" with previous research and pointed to the same strategic approach to the Five-Year Strategic Plan and the cabinet statements of April 17 and October 9 this year.
"It brings new information about linkages between prevalence, behaviour and communication," she said. "It also shows that the government's prevention programme is working. The results of the condom survey show that abstinence and faithfulness are being taken to heart, especially by the young."
Colvin said that while the report provided new baseline information on prevalence which could help formulate government policy, there was a great deal more investigative work to be done on HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
He highlighted two areas of concern in the report that, in his opinion, required further investigation.
The one area involved the finding that over five percent of young children between the ages of two and 14 were HIV positive.
"In many cases there was no history of HIV/AIDS with the mother or the father," he said "which leads us to assume that these children have become affected either through acts of child abuse or early sexual behaviour.
"Even more of a mystery was the fact that many of the children surveyed were, according to their families, virgins.
"This leads us to believe that surgical needles used for injections may be the source of contamination. However, these are elements that require further research."
The government, which is to increase dedicated funding for HIV/AIDS by R3,3-billion over the next three years, has also applauded the research's "eloquent testimony" to the link between social vulnerability and HIV-vulnerability based on gender, poor housing conditions and weak community cohesion. |
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