2023-11-28 21:44:36
South Africa has seen a decline in the number of people living with HIV over the past five years. These results are encouraging given that South Africa alone represents a third of African cases, with more than 85,000 annual deaths due to AIDS in recent years. Interview with Doctor Sean Jooste from the team at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the South African public institute which carried out the scientific studies in the field.
Published on: 11/28/2023 – 10:44 p.m.
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RFI: How do these new data allow us to see a change regarding HIV in South Africa?
Sean Jooste: We started these studies in 2002, this is the 6th report that we have published and it is the first time that we have observed a decline in the number of cases. In the past, on the contrary, we have always seen a constant increase in the number of HIV carriers.
In 2017, 14% of the population carried the virus, 12.7% in 2022. We therefore went from 7.9 to 7.8 million carriers. That’s 100,000 fewer people. So it’s promising, but, it must be recognized, there are still far too many people living with Like in the country.
What are the objectives now?
The decline in condom use is a real problem. Particularly for individuals who have multiple partners. And the use of condoms is also a problem among the younger generations, if we want to progress, we must target these young people.
Despite everything, we have also seen progress: notably a drop in the rate of HIV contamination among these younger generations. This is also the first time that we have observed this decrease. So one of our objectives, our priorities: it is to continue, that these gains, this progress are confirmed.
Another element is that we must focus on people living with AIDS. And this will be one of the keys to success, these patients must have permanent access to treatment. This is also one of the priorities of the NGOs on the ground. And every effort must be made to ensure that HIV patients are aware of this medical device and have access to treatment.
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