uMgungundlovu District has the highest HIV prevalence figures in KwaZulu-Natal, according to the latest statistics released by the Human Science Research Council (HSRC).
The survey’s findings, released by the HSRC in Durban yesterday, shows that at 19,5%, the HIV prevalence in uMgungundlovu District was higher than the eight other districts surveyed in the province.
The survey found that, compared to other provinces, KwaZulu-Natal had the second-highest HIV prevalence, at 16% in 2022, down from 18% in 2017.
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This translates to 1 980 000 people living with HIV in KwaZulu-Natal, down from 1 990 000 in 2017.
While unprotected sex and multiple sex partners remained the main drivers of the region’s HIV infections, the HSRC survey also found that at 9,4%, uMgungundlovu District had the largest number of young people, aged between 15 and 24, who engaged in sex. This was higher than any other district in the province.
Among the district’s residents, who underwent an HIV test as part of the survey, a significant number of young people who tested positive were not aware of their status.
As a result of their ignorance, most of the district’s young people who tested positive were not on antiretroviral treatment.
“As a result of this and other factors, the uMgungundlovu District doesn’t have the highest number of people who are virally suppressed,” said Professor Khangelani Zuma, who was the principal investigator of the study.
The HSRC findings come on the back of the province’s shocking HIV infection statistics which were tabled at the 11th SA Aids Conference in June last year.
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According to the statistics, approximately 1300 young people in KZN were contracting the HIV virus every week.
However, despite the high rate of HIV infection among the province’s young people, Zuma said KZN’s adults, particularly individuals between the ages of 45 and 49, remain in the category with the highest number of people who have tested positive for HIV.
HIV prevalence peaked at 44,5% among those aged 45-49 years in 2022, from 39,7% in 2017 among those aged 35-39 years, indicating a possibility of continuing infections among older people. HIV prevalence had decreased by 2022 among all age groups younger than 40 years compared to 2017.
The reason why the prevalence rate was the highest among the 45-49 age category was because the age group was sexually active during the height of HIV infections in the ’90s and early 2000s — a period during which HIV education was at its infancy and treatment was not available.
Zuma said the fact that there was high prevalence among older men and women was not something that should be viewed in a negative light as it was proof that people infected by the virus were living much longer.
However, Zuma addd that it was a concern that new infections within the 45-49 age category continue, given that the majority of them were more informed when it came to matters around HIV education.
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This is the first time since the launch of the Human Science Research Council HIV survey in 2002 that KwaZulu-Natal did not record the highest infection rate in the country. According to the HSRC, Mpumalanga province in 2022 had the highest HIV prevalence rate in the country, at 17,4%.
The Witness
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