(Health): Close to Eight Million South Africans live with HIV and is the World’s Epicenter

Close to eight million South Africans are living with HIV, making the country the epicenter of the disease globally.

KwaZulu-Natal carries the bulk of these infections.

With the rise in new infections post the COVID-19 pandemic and the burden remaining on young women in sub-Saharan Africa, scientists, NGOs, and policymakers will be in Durban at the 11th SA Aids Conference starting on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, to reignite a multi-stakeholder approach to fighting HIV.

Director of the Office of Aids and TB Research at the Medical Research Council, Doctor Fareed Abdullah, says during the pandemic, the number of people who tested for HIV decreased by 20%.

“All the people who didn’t have their treatment are now arriving at the hospitals in a much sicker state. All those people who were never tested are now presenting with severe disease, whereas they would have presented with mild disease. So, we have this HIV rebound phenomenon, and we need more money in health services to accommodate this new need. So, the rate of new patients starting ARV treatment stagnated, declined compared to previous years, and for the first time in the last 15 years globally, there’s been an increase in mortality from HIV.”

Abdullah says donor funding for NGOs is also a barrier in driving the fight on the frontlines, most notably the Treatment Action Campaign.

“It’s going through a difficult period now. It had to retrench a whole lot of staff because it didn’t have the funding, but these are the people that brought us to where we are. Over the last 20 years, to have a situation now where the TAC is underfunded and struggling is something as an HIV community we need to step in”, the Director said.

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