FOCUS

HIV/AIDS profile in the provinces of South Mrica, 2002

insights, sapped our energies and dispirited our

determination to act.

And, most significantly, they have silenced all too many

voices among those who are experiencing the epidemic in

their own bodies and their own families and in their own

communities. The deniers have re-created shame, and re-

imposed silence, in an epidemic where the struggle for

twenty years has been to create voices and to defeat

shame.

The denial of the facts about AIDS is not only an outrage

against the truth. It is a profound insult to those South

Africans who are living with and dying from the effects of

the virus. They deny us the dignity of our suffering. They

deny us the dignity of our struggle for life against the

workings of a viral agent.

Most importantly, they deny us the dignity of the truth, and

the power and hope, and the opportunities for action, that

acceptance of the truth brings.

In countless villages and townships and cities and

settlements in South Africa, where the virus is taking its toll

A booklet entitled HIV/AIDS Profile in the Provinces of South

Africa: Indicators for 2002 has recently been released. It

makes provincial trends and statistics on the HIV/AIDS

epidemic available to government officials at all levels, as

well as to business people, non-governmental organis-

ations (NGOs) and the public The report gives readers a

sense of the magnitude of the numbers involved, and will

allow them to benchmark other information about the

epidemic as it becomes available.

The booklet can be down loaded from www.mrc.ac.za or

www.assa.org.za/aidsmodel.asp or www.commerce.uct.

ac.za/care, and is also available from the University of Cape

Town (UCT)'s Centre for Actuarial Research at R30 per copy

(tel. (021) 650-2475).

The estimates provided are not new - in fact. they have

been available for the last year on the Actuarial Society of

South Africa's website - but it is the first time they have

been compiled into one publication for ease of access.

The indicators are based on a model constructed by the

Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA). While there is

~EHRUAIlY 2003 ------------

of health and life among our people, the terrible truth

about AIDS is being born and lived and died. Our people are

being born, are living with, and dying from that truth.

They are living that truth in the rising fevers, the wasting of

flesh and the slow, agonised cessation of bodily functions

that result from the virus.

Their suffering is being increased and is being prolonged

incalculably by the deniers.

But, as we have seen today, from the terrible grief of those

affected by the virus a terrible determination arises: a

determination to defeat untruth and misrepresentation

and distortion, and to assert hope.

That is the ultimate significance of the unforgettable

images of this exhibition: that untruth and inaction are the

greatest crimes of all. Let us take an angry inspiration, and

a deep determination, from that.

REfERENCE

1. Hlongwan(" C. Caravans, ears, g~st', foot & mouth ana srarisrics - HN/AlDS and
the struggle for the humani~tiOI1 of the African. ANC document, distributed April
2002

always a degree of uncertainty surrounding such estimates,

models can provide an invaluable tool for giving a sense of

possible future scenarios. The ASSA model is continuously

being improved as more data become available and our

understanding of the dynamics of the epidemic improve.

Some of the information available in the report

• The extent of the epidemic, with 6,5 million people
(14,2'1'0 of the population) infected with HIV by July
2002.

• Of these, over 95% (6.1 million) are in the age group
18 - 64 years (labour force age).

• The prevalence is highest [25.9%) among young
women of childbearing age - this, in turn, has
implications in terms of numbers of orphans.

• The prevalence of HIV/AIDS (among all ages) in each
of the provinces is as follows:
KwaZulu-Natal 18.4% Eastern Cape 11.3%
Free State 16.7% Limpopo 11.0%
Mpumalanga 16.5'1'0 Northern Cape 7.9%
Gauteng 16.QOIo Western Cape 4.2'1'0
North West 15.1 %

THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN JOURNAL OF HIV MEDICINE



AWARDS

South Mrican researchers awarded R220 million
research grant

The project will:

• Evaluate an affordable HIV/AIDS treatment programme
for adults and children in a family setting at primary

care level.

• Test whether treatment interruption is an affordable
and feasible way of controlling HIV infection in children

that reduces the progression to AIDS.

• Determine the efficacy of two standard childhood
vaccines (used to prevent pneumonia and meningitis)

in preventing AIDS-related complications in infants.

• Evaluate the community effect of highly active

antiretroviral therapy on sickness and deaths due to

AIDS and tuberculosis.

• Develop simple, inexpensive methods of diagnosing HIV

and monitoring treatment and drug resistance.

Professor James Mclntyre and Glenda Groy. Executive
Directors of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Chris Hani

Barogwanath Hospital, Soweta.

For further information contact:

Professor Rob Dorrington, UCT Centre for Actuarial

Research
Tel. (021) 650-2467

Or Debbie Bradshaw, MRC Burden of Disease Research

Unit

Cell: 082 461 1234

----------- HHRUARY 2003

'Low-income households in South Africa carry the greatest

burden of HIV!AIDS, experience the greatest negative

effects, and have the least reserves to cope: says Professor

Mclntyre. The new CIPRA grant, 'Safeguarding the

Household: Comprehensive AIDS Research', will address

HIV/AIDS as a problem not simply of individuals but of

entire families, he explains, and all family members may

participate in the studies. The cutting-edge research

programme will focus on aspects of HIV treatment in adults

and children, tuberculosis and affordable laboratory tests.

'This research agenda is of crucial importance to South

Africa and our region. It will gather essential information

for the government's AIDS programmes in the future, and

covers many of the key areas raised in the recent cabinet

statement on AIDS; explains Professor Mclntyre. The grant

award recognises the quality of South African AIDS

research and will provide the opportunity to develop many

more local researchers through an extensive, linked,

training programme:

The United States National Institutes for Health has

announced the award of a major research grant to leading

South African AIDS researchers. The $21.3 million (about

R220 million) award over 5 years will support HIV/AIDS

research in a family setting, a rarely tried approach to

fighting the disease. This grant is the largest yet made by

the Comprehensive International Program for Research on

AIDS (CIPRA). This national collaborative research effort will

be led by Professor James Mclntyre and co-ordinated by

the Perinatal HIV Research Unit of the University of the

Witwatersrand.

THf SOUTMtRN MRICAN JOURNAL or HIIJ MfDICINf

Making the epidemic more visible, and underscanding its

dynamics through such reports is important not only in

managing the impact of the epidemic but also in eventually

being able to turn the tide of it. For all spheres of planning,

it is essential to have an understanding of where the

country stands in terms of HIV!AIDS.