HIV IN MODERN SOUTH AFRICA

Human Immunodeficiency Virus, commonly known as HIV, is the virus that weakens a person's ability to fight infections and cancer. People with HIV are said to have AIDS when they develop certain infections or cancers or when their CD4 count is less than 800. CD4 count is determined by a blood test.

Once HIV has entered the body, it replicates. A virus cannot make a copy of itself on its own; it needs to invade a healthy cell in your body to survive. HIV targets and invades CD4 cells. CD4 cells help the body’s immune system and protect it against germs and viruses that make us sick. A normal CD4 cell count is 800 – 1 600. When your CD4 cell count is low than 800 you are more vulnerable to illnesses.

Having HIV does not always mean that you have AIDS. It can take many years for people with the virus to develop AIDS. HIV and AIDS cannot be cured. However, with the medications available today, it is possible to have a normal lifespan with little or minimal interruption in quality of life.

In 2011 there were 34 million people in the age group 15 – 49 living with the HI virus worldwide. Out of those only 1.7 million died from AIDS related causes.

AIDS is the more advanced stage of HIV infection. When the immune system CD4 cells drop to a very low level, a person's ability to fight infection is lost. Without HIV treatment, full-blown AIDS starts to develop. During this last phase of the disease, the virus severely damages the immune system to a point where the body can no longer fight a number of viral, fungal, bacterial and parasitic infections that invade. Anyone of these infections is life threatening, and most people with AIDS eventually succumb to them

According to a survey performed by Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) there were over 400 000 new HIV infections in South Africa in 2012. This ranked South Africa first in HIV incidents in the world. Women aged between 30 and 34 and males aged 35 to 39 had the highest infection rates: 36% of females and 28.8% of males in these respective age groups contracted HIV. Provincially, KwaZulu-Natal has the highest HIV prevalence (16.9%) and the Western Cape the lowest (5%).

According to the survey, the increased infection rate is "largely due to the combined effects of new infections and a successfully expanded antiretroviral treatment [ART] program" – ART allow people with HIV to live significantly longer, leading to greater percentage of HIV-infected people remaining in society. ART access almost doubled between 2008 and 2012, with about a third of the country's HIV-infected population – about two-million out of 6.4-million infected people – accessing ART in 2012.

Black African females aged 20 to 34 recorded the highest incidence of HIV among all the analysed population groups.

Disaggregation of the survey data by race showed that "Black Africans had the highest HIV infection rate compared to all other race groups [15%]", followed by Coloured people (3.1%), Indians or Asians (0.8%) and Whites (0.3%). The figures for white people were however considered unreliable because of a low response rate. In attempting to understand the possible reasons for high infection rates among black Africans, the survey findings suggest that "black Africans were less likely than all other races to live in urban formal areas. Urban informal areas are generally under-resourced and lack some of the basic necessities such as formal housing, water, sanitation and access to preventative health services."

Over 85% of HIV transmission of is through sexual intercourse. Many people are still ignorant about HIV, as some still believe that this is a virus for Black People whereas HIV does not discriminate.

The following graph shows the estimated HIV groups per institution of higher learning in South Africa.

TB does not cause HIV. If you are HIV positive, your immune system is compromised therefore you are at a greater risk of contracting TB. Currently Western Cape Province has the highest TB rate in the world.

Irrespective of many efforts done by the Department of Health to lower the numbers of new HIV infections still to many people get infected. The department has made it easy for everyone to have access to contraceptives such as condoms. New condoms have been established by the department to encourage people to use contraceptives as a way of protecting themselves from STI’s/STD’s particularly the HI virus. Flavoured condoms; finger condoms; dental wraps (for oral sex); and femidoms (female condoms) are some of the condoms that have been introduced. Even so, the vast majority of people in our country do not know how to use a condom correctly. This is one of the major contributions to the incline of STI’s/STD’s. The government is doing more than expected to promote safe sex.  Illiteracy cannot be blamed for the incline of HIV in South Africa.