Half A Million Joburg Adults Are HIV Positive, According To Study. The analysis was conducted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Approximately 17 % of people between the ages of 15 and 49 are HIV positive. This is a 5% rise from the 2000 statistics. According to an analysis, an amount of 5.3 million South African adults under 50-years-old have HIV.
The analysis was conducted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The analysis was launched in a journal called “Nature.” The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics And Evaluation attempted to simplify the amount of individuals that are currently HIV positive in 46 African nations. The simplification was a way of helping the people in government concentrate on beating the virus.
The analysis discovered that South Africa had a high number of HIV positive people as compared to other nations such as Nigeria with 3% and Namibia with 13.8%. However, the high number in South Africa may be due to individuals having a longer lifespan with the virus because of the improved antiretroviral treatments. The University of KwaZulu-Natal pharmacologist, Andy Gray, says, “I do not think SA’s epidemic is getting worse. Prevalence would also be expected to increase as mortality drops because of antiretroviral therapy. More persons living with HIV are living longer.”
Andy says that the local South African data would help in concentrating on areas that need help and find the certain places that could be missed. The biggest occurrence was in the uMngungundlovu District Municipality, where Pietermaritzburg has approximately 10% of people living with HIV. Johannesburg has 466 000 people between 15 and 49-years-old living with HIV. KwaZulu-Natal has the most people living with HIV at 1.4 million people.
The analysis has also shown that only some of the people that live in Africa have a chance of antiretroviral therapy. Accord to UNICEF, 34% of individuals that live with HIV in East and Southern Africa and 60% of individuals that live with HIV in West and Central Africa do not have any antiretroviral therapy.
by Alexandra Ramaite
