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HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Introduction

The critical health issue in the South African Republic is HIV/AIDS, which is believed to be the country in the world leading in the highest number of persons living with this infection.  HIV/AIDS in S.A primarily spreads through social practices as traditional practices and ignorance. The population that suffers this killer decease include can be categorized by age, gender, race, pregnant women and by the location of people in the nation. For instance, residents in some provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal are more vulnerable to HIV/IADS infections than those residing in the Western Cape Province. This paper is going to discuss the infected and exposed population in South Africa, their demographic information, and the social-cultural behaviors that contribute to the menace. Besides, this paper is also going to describe HIV/AIDS health issue in S.A, its history as well as how it has been evolving over time. The paper is going to finalize by explaining the current intervention strategies to counter this infection, as well as come up with recommendations and conclusion.

Target population prevalence

South Africa is estimated to have 19.5% of its total population infected with HIV/AIDs according to research by Human Research Sciences of South Africa. It also asserted that 400000 persons die every year from HIV/AIDS infection (Lule, & Haacker, 2011). The prevalence has proved to be at an increasing rate and recently, it was discovered that at least 2,000 of the total population die every day. The population infected were surveyed in 2014 and admitted that, they were not well informed about the transmission ways of preventing such as proper use of condoms and traditional practices such as exchange of wives.

Looking at the population by race, a recent study revealed that, HIV/AIDS infection in S.A spreads across the racial lines. The same survey indicated that 15% of the total South Africans are the black Africans while only 4% makes the rest of the population.  Looking at the spread of this illness by gender, the infections are more prevalent among the female and even more evident in pregnant women.  Looking at the HIV/AIDS spread by age, the number of old teenagers infected has doubled over the past two years. People in the age of below 20years old have increased, where the same figures of an infected person are evident among those aged 35-49 since they are believed to be more sexually active. By population location, it is found that some provinces are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection and spread due to the nature of people living in that area regarding their social, cultural behaviors and practices. It would include proper education on how to use condoms as well as the levels of literacy. For instance, KwaZulu Province leads with a total population of infected persons in a 25.9%, Mpumalanga has 24% and the trend goes down in the other provinces where Western Cape has a population of only 4% of infected persons according to a recent report by the World Bank (Makalela, 2015).

History and evolution of HIV/AIDS in S.A

The firs paper to spell the mode of sexually transmitted diseases was the Sidney Kark. It explained several factors such as black men who returned to their tribal women after long periods of working in the mines during the colonial era, high levels of prostitution as well as the activities of the town wives living around the mines. According to the paper, these were the best grounds that offered real reasons of the rampant spread of the sexually transmitted infections. Besides, the routes of the migratory labor from the city to the tribal reserves created a trellis for the transmission of illnesses such as syphilis. An illustrative study indicated that the enlisted sex workers at the truck stopped in the KwaZulu province of South Africa clearly demonstrating the multi-country distribution of the many truck drivers across the region.  In 1986, a survey of the Goldmine worked indicated that 9% of the total workers at the mines places were infected with HIV/AIDS.  It was a strange warning that South Africa was headed towards the worst of its days since most of the rich and the sexually active individuals were the workers at the gold mine sites.

From 1990, the anti-apartheid regime movements were more concerned with thrashing out their colonial masters, and this can be attributed to being the sole reason why they never paid enough attention to the HIV/AIDS spread (Crisp, 2014). The first serious action against the spread of HIV/AIDS in SA was in 1994, by the newly installed African government, that prohibited and limited the gay community, the activities such as blood transfusion recipients as well as hemophiliacs (Lule, & Haacker, 2011). Women are vising clinics while pregnant had high chances of contracting HIV/AIDS due to the medical practices of the institutions in this place. The national prevalence rates rose steadily from 197-2003 from 11% to 25%, due to lack of adequate knowledge on the use of protection, ignorance and medical practices in the hospitals. Besides, the government made little efforts in creating national awareness against the menace.

Relationship between population and HIV/AIDS prevalence

The relationship between the infected demographic in South African can mainly be attributed to social factors such as poverty. Women tend to trade themselves sexually among the rich men for money due to the significant gap between the poor and the rich in different provinces. For instance, people living in Western Cape are incredibly generous compared to those residing in the province of KwaZulu. They relied on immoral acts for survival such as theft and prostitution. Lack of sex education is another significant contribution to the current spread of the HIV/AIDS spread. According to the year 2000 annual national health report, it was discovered that, the citizens living in provinces such as KwaZulu and Free States had little levels of civilizations on how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS infection (Masquillier, Wouters, Mortelmans, van Wyk, Hausler, & Van Damme, 2016). The same report indicated that in Mpumalanga province, one of the provinces perceive to be highly occupied by the poor people and illiterate ones, 20% of the total population in this area remains ignorant on using protections while others cannot even afford protections such as condoms. Other beliefs such as cultural exchange of wives or even inheriting women whose husbands have died of HIV/AIDS are among the significant contribution to the spread of this menace.

Current strategies in place to counter HIV/AIDS spread in South Africa

The government is South Africa has heavily invested in educating its population towards behavior change. Among the best strategies to this is informing the citizens of the existence of HIV means of transmission as well as the consequences of infection (Masquillier, Wouters, Mortelmans, van Wyk, Hausler, & Van Damme, 2016). It was the government expectation that, educating its population, it would be easier to prompt its citizens to abstain strictly from irresponsible sex, make use of every sexual activity from a high to low risk sexual activities such as engaging sex with fewer partners. The education and information are believed to be always changing the attitude and behavior of the people in South Africa. Besides, there has been passed bills to protect women, and young girls who are considered to be sexually vulnerable than others in cases such as rape are making decisions during sexual inter-source such as bargaining for safe sex. The government is also fueling a speedy giving of the ARVS and constant supply of prevention measures such as free quality condoms in all state known institutions (Kravtsov, 2015). The strategies have proved to be very efficient and are also leading to good peer mentorship which is improving the lives of the citizens in South Africa. The government has also invested heavily on treating of severe opportunistic infections among the infected population such as careful attendance of people infected of Tuberculosis, Candidiasis as well as anemia. This illness can also be spread through coughing and sneezing with symptoms of fatigue, weight loss and sometimes vomiting blood and excess mucus.

Recommendations and conclusion

To counter HIV/AIDS spread in S.A, the major bodies such as media should also join the war against this menace. The media should be more aggressive and give a more advanced stance to pressure the government and other non-government institutions to fight the threat. The media should provide a daily coverage on the HIV/AIDS related news and pressure the government to make more effort in containing the menace. Finally, the government should introduce birth control mechanism to reverent the deaths of pregnant women who are infected with HIV/AIDS.