HIV prevalence level stabilised - government

The number of HIV infections in South Africa appears to have stabilised, according to the results of an annual survey announced by the government on Monday.

Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said: "Although we see a slight increase, statistically this increase is not significant, and we can confidently say the prevalence rate has stabilised. It is encouraging to see that HIV prevalence among teenagers has dropped for the third consecutive year," South African daily newspaper, The Star reported.

The national HIV and syphilis prevalence study showed that of about 17,000 pregnant women, 24.8 percent tested HIV positive at the end of last year, compared with 24.5 percent the previous year.

Prof Salim Abdool Karim, epidemiologist and deputy vice chancellor for research at the University of Natal, told PlusNews that one also needed to look at existing data on HIV/AIDS deaths, as more people were dying from HIV/AIDS and the rate of new infections was roughly becoming equal to the mortality rate.

"A lack of change in prevalence data hides the situation where a large number of new infections are taking place," he said.

According to a survey report on the findings, the statistics were calculated from blood tests taken among pregnant women attending government clinics in October 2001. The survey was conducted among pregnant women as they were the most reliable cross-section of social and income groups and were considered the most likely population to seek health care, the report added.

The survey stated that HIV prevalence among younger pregnant women has declined, dropping from 16.1 percent in 2000 to 15.4 percent in 2001 among women under 20 and from 29.1 percent in 2000 to 28.4 percent in 2001 among women aged 20 to 24.

Yet the survey found that HIV prevalence among older women was rising, increasing from 23.3 percent in 2000 to 25.6 percent in 2001 among pregnant women aged 30 to 34 and from 15.8 percent to 19.3 percent among women aged 35 to 39.

The trends from the survey should be viewed as "a source of encouragement and leave no room for complacency", as the health care implications of the current infections were enormous, the survey report noted.