Photos: HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Get important information on the nation’s largest epidemic.
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HIV/ AIDS in South Africa - South Africa ranks No. 1 in the world in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS, making the illness one of the top issues facing the nation. During First Lady Michelle Obama’s first official visit to the country this week, she challenged young people to fight to end the disease’s prevalence. “You can be the generation that ends HIV/AIDS in our time, the generation that fights not just the disease, but the stigma of the disease, the generation that teaches the world that HIV is fully preventable, and treatable, and should never be a source of shame," Obama told the audience at a young African women leaders’ forum in Johannesburg.Learn more about the facts, history and controversies about the epidemic in South Africa in the following pages.(Photo: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, Pool)
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Facts and Figures - There were 5.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa in 2009, which is about 11 percent of the population, according to a UNAIDS report. That same year 310,000 people in the nation lost their lives to AIDS.(Photo: AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
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HIV/AIDS and Young People - The epidemic is affecting the nation’s young people at an alarming rate. Women aged 25 to 29 had the highest prevalence of the HIV/AIDS in 2008 with 32.7 percent being infected, according to the South African National HIV Survey. Men between ages 30 and 34 had an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 25.8 percent. Young children are being hit hard as well with nearly 40,000 children being diagnosed last year, according to government stats. HIV/AIDS is also thought to be behind the nation’s rise in infant mortality rates between 1990 and 2008 (from 44 deaths per 1,000 infants to 48 deaths per 1,000 infants), reported by the World Health Organization.(Photo: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah / Reuters)
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Early Days of HIV/AIDS in South Africa - The first Black South African was diagnosed with the illness in 1987. Early conspiracy theories hindered awareness campaigns about the illness. An official publication from African National Congress, which represents the ruling party, alleged that HIV was created in a lab, while conservative parties said desegregation heightened the HIV risk for whites. But in 1992, the National AIDS Coordinating Committee of South Africa was created, bringing together a range of groups across the nation with the singular goal of combating the growing epidemic, AVERT reports.
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Controversies - HIV/AIDS activists were often at odds with government officials when it came to developing effective ways to fight the illness. Notably, Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who served as minister of health under former President Thabo Mbeki from 1999 to 2008, was staunchly against anti-retroviral medications, believing patients could be treated with beetroot, garlic and lemons. This obviously did not sit well with the activists, who thought Tshabalala-Msimang’s stance was costing the lives of many people at a critical time in the nation. (Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar MS)
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Treatment - Following the departure of both Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa has the world’s largest anti-retroviral therapy programs. However, with such a large number of its population affected, adequate access to the drugs remains an issue. In 2009, about 56 percent of people infected were receiving HIV treatment, according to the World Health Organization. That figure, though, is more than twice what it was in 2007.(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)�