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SAFRICA-HEALTH-AIDS-DRUGS
10-fold surge in S.Africa teens treated for HIV: study
PARIS, Oct 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The number of young people in South Africa
receiving treatment for HIV has increased 10-fold within a decade, a major
new study has found.
South Africa has the largest number of HIV-positive people in the world,
with around 7.2 million carrying the virus, which causes AIDS.
Researchers studied more than 700,000 young people receiving treatment for
the infection and found 10 times the number of adolescents aged between 15-19
being treated compared with 2010.
Authors of the study, published in The Lancet HIV journal attributed the
rise partly due to the success of AIDS prevention programmes that result in
better detection and treatment rates.
However they found that fewer than 50 percent of young South Africans who
present for HIV care go on to initiate antiretroviral therapy, which can
prevent transmission and stops a patient developing AIDS.
“Despite the upswing in numbers initiating therapy, barriers persist that
prevent many adolescents from starting treatment,” said Mhairi Maskew from
the University of Witwatersrand and the report’s lead author.
These include concerns about stigma, a pervasive sense that clinics cannot
guarantee patient confidentiality and increased domestic responsibilities for
young people, especially in families where children have lost parents to HIV
and AIDS.
The study found that while those diagnosed with HIV were roughly split by
gender, nine in 10 people actively receiving treatment were girls.
The authors said this was consistent with far higher rates of sexually-
transmitted HIV infection in young women compared to young men.
AIDS deaths have declined globally since the peak of the epidemic in the
early 2000s, but an international AIDS commission warned last year of a
resurgence if the world’s booming adolescent population weren’t protected.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1906 hrs