Blog Examines South African Report On HIV/AIDS Prevalence

John Campbell, Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in his “Africa in Transition” blog about the recently released report from South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on HIV/AIDS in the country. “…The good news: over the past 10 years, mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS has declined from 70,000 babies per year to about 8,600 in 2012. There has been a decline in new infections among people in the demographic range of fifteen to twenty-four years of age. Blood samples indicate that about a third of those infected have received some antiretroviral treatment. The bad news is that 21.2 percent of South Africa’s population is infected, an increase of almost two percent since the 2008 survey. Condom use has fallen since 2008, down to less than 68 percent from 85 percent in 2008. And the age of sexual debut among young males has also dropped, from about 10 percent of boys before the age of fifteen to 16.7 percent…” (4/2).

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