H I V / A i d s P r o j e c t

How does South Africa celebrate World Aids day?

In South Africa, this day was first celebrated in 1996 when the Department of Health organised a special event called the National World AIDS Day in Bloemfontein, Free State, and in Pretoria, Gauteng... read more

Latest UN statistics: HIV in South Africa

On 21 November 2007, a new UN report said more than three-quarters of Aids-related deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa was now officially the country with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world. Speaking on the same day of the release of the UN report, Health Director General Thami Mseleku said there were signs that there was a turnaround in the number of new HIV infections in South Africa. He cited the national HIV and Syphilis prevalence survey which showed a decrease in the prevalence of HIV amongst pregnant woman, and also a decline from 15.9% in 2005 to 13.7% in 2006 of the prevalence of the virus amongst 20 years old and younger. However, HIV prevalence in the older age groups remained at levels similar to 2005 and in some instances there were increases.

HIV/AIDS is a deadly disease, which is currently incurable. The consequences of HIV and AIDS for the economy in the countries in southern Africa are terrible. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes it . Twenty years after the first clinical evidence of AIDS was reported, it may become the most devastating disease humankind has ever faced. With 14,000 people newly infected with HIV worldwide each day, 600 are in South Africa; the number of people newly infected with HIV in 2002 is 42 million worldwide and 5.3 million in South Africa. For hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, aids don't actually exist. It is still a taboo to others. Often there is already severe poverty and the virus is drastically thinning the young generation, which should be building a better future. Education about the pandemic (testing, counselling and living positively after being infected play a role on reducing the infection), poverty which includes being unable to afford treatment, social impact regarding infected parents and society leaders dying and leaving a generation of children growing up without the care and role models they will normally have.

South African Cabinet's approval of the national treatment plan will pro-long the life of the infected and reduce the death rate of the pandemic.

HIV is a name of the germ that attacks a person's immune system ( the body's "security force" that fights off infections) . HIV is a retrovirus that infects cells of the immune system. HIV virus is carried in blood and sexual fluids and can thus be transmitted via contaminated blood and sexual fluids exchanged through sexual contact. HIV causes AIDS. AIDS is a condition that when the immune system breaks down, you lose this protection and can develop many serious, often deadly infections and cancers. AIDS-defining conditions are also ‘opportunistic infections' which rarely cause death in healthy individuals and are then treatable on their own.

Unprotected vaginal or anal intercourse with an infected person
A mother's infection passing to her child during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding (called vertical transmission) – the risk of HIV passing from mother to child is approximately 30%
Injection with contaminated needles, which may occur when intravenous drug users share needles, or when health care workers are involved in needle prick accidents
Use of contaminated surgical instruments, for example during traditional circumcision
Blood transfusion with infected blood