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Ex-deputy president's HIV status in question

    JOHANNESBURG

    Former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma testified on Tuesday that he had had sex with an HIV-positive woman because the risk of infection was slight, the South African Press Association reported.

    "I knew the risk was very minimal," he told the Johannesburg High Court, adding that he had obtained this knowledge while serving on the AIDS Council.

    The former deputy president's HIV-status became the subject of speculation shortly after the trial began, when the court heard expert testimony on the possibility of Zuma having contracted HIV from the woman he allegedly raped.

    Virology specialist Prof Desmond Martin told the court in March that the risk of infection through unprotected sex was three in 10,000 but this increased in the presence of bleeding and abrasions, or a prior history of sexually transmitted infections such as herpes or syphilis.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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