THE government’s latest survey of HIV among pregnant women, released on Monday, has highlighted tremendous variation on how the epidemic has affected South Africa’s 52 health districts, with prevalence ranging from 5% in the Northern Cape’s Namakwa to 46% in Gert Sibande in Mpumalanga.
The Department of Health has conducted an HIV and syphilis prevalence survey among pregnant women every year since 1990, enabling it to track the progression of the HIV epidemic and gauge the effect of its response.
Its latest snapshot of the epidemic in the health districts points to regions that need more attention, the deputy director-general for HIV, tuberculosis and child and maternal health, Dr Yogan Pillay, said on Monday.
He said officials were very concerned about districts with an HIV prevalence of over 40% and were considering increasing condom distribution in these areas.
The male condom distribution rate in Gert Sibande was just 18 per male per year, compared with 40 in Eden, which had a prevalence of 16%, Dr Pillay said.
The sample sizes in each district are small, so there is often considerable year-on-year fluctuation, but the data collected provided a useful picture of patterns over time, said University of Cape Town demographer Rob Dorrington.
The 2011 antenatal clinic survey, released on Monday by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, found 29.5% of pregnant women attending government clinics were infected with HIV, a level that has remained constant for the past five years.
The survey contains good news on two fronts — the rate of new infections is declining and more women in their 30s are living longer as they get access to life-saving treatment, said Prof Dorrington.
The survey reported that about 5.6-million people living in SA last year were HIV-positive.
The HIV prevalence among young women aged between 15 and 19, which is used as a proxy for new infections because they are assumed to have been relatively recently infected, was 12.7%. In 2010, the prevalence was 14%.
In a separate development, activists from Médecins Sans Frontières and the Treatment Action Campaign on Monday raised the alarm over drugs shortages in the Eastern Cape, following a strike at the Mthatha medical depot.
"Serious antiretroviral drug supply shortages at the Mthatha medical depot threaten the health of more than 50,000 HIV patients in the Eastern Cape who are at risk of treatment interruption," they said.
Dr Pillay said the Department of Health had sent two teams to the Eastern Cape to help resolve the crisis, which affected all patients, not just those with HIV.
Vaccines and chronic medicine supplies had also been affected, he said.
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