AIDS rising among South Africa's rich
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tuesday January 30, 10:36 PM Reuters
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AIDS rising among South Africa's rich*
By Andrew Quinn
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's AIDS epidemic, often regarded by
health workers as a disease of the poor, is in fact spreading quickly
among the country's richest and best educated people, researchers said
on Tuesday.
The study by the Markinor polling firm and the University of South
Africa (UNISA) showed a rapid increase in HIV infections in professional
people and those with full-time employment -- both key to South Africa's
hopes to spur economic development.
"The high risk group is growing, it is getting older and it is getting
richer," said Carel van Aardt, director of UNISA's Bureau of Market
Research. "This could represent a whole new wave of the epidemic."
The study challenges widespread assumptions about South Africa's
HIV/AIDS crisis, which is often described as a disease of the rural poor
who lack access to information, treatment and basic health services.
South Africa now has some 5.5 million HIV-positive people out of a total
population of some 45 million, giving it an estimated overall prevalence
rate of about 11 percent and one of the worst AIDS caseloads in the world.
The new study examined some 3,500 South Africans between the years of
2002-2005, a poll engineered to reflect the country's racial and
economic demographics.
Overall, the study identified young people below the age of 30 as being
at greatest risk for HIV, as most previous research has done. But it
also found infections rising at alarming rates in the rich and better
educated -- groups not previously singled out as being at risk.
"We are on the eve of a very scary reality unless we start making some
changes," said Tracy Hammond, Markinor's project manager for the study.
UP THE SOCIAL LADDER
Researchers said there were many possible factors behind the spread of
HIV among upper levels of society, among them confused government
messages about HIV/AIDS, greater disposable income and leisure, and
general apathy about safe sex practices.
But whatever the reason, AIDS is certainly climbing the social ladder
for both black and white South Africans.
Among South Africa's professionals, for instance, the study found a 34
percent jump in estimated HIV prevalence, rising to 8.3 percent in 2004
from 6.2 percent in 2002.
People with full-time jobs -- who in South Africa account for only about
half the working population -- saw estimated HIV-prevalence rise to 19.2
percent in 2005 from 14.4. percent in 2002, an increase of 36 percent.
Unemployed people, while seeing a bigger percentage jump in HIV
prevalence, remained lower in terms of actual prevalence rates with just
18.4 percent estimated infected in 2005 compared with 11 percent in 2002.
In a further piece of alarming news, the study said HIV infection was
growing most quickly in those aged between 30-34, threatening people
just as their careers take off.
Overall, the richest third of South Africa's population still has a
lower estimated HIV-prevalence than the poorest third, at 8.5 percent
compared to 23.4 percent.
But the study said new infections were increasing most rapidly in this
demographic, rising by 39 percent between 2002-2005 against only a 14
percent increase for their poorest compatriots.
"This time it is not the employees, it is the employers. It is not the
people without bank accounts, it is the people who make investments,"
Markinor's Hammond said. "If we thought the AIDS epidemic was having bad
economic effects already, this could take us to the crisis point."