The New York Times

Tuesday, April 18, 2000

South Africa Has 4.2 Million People With HIV

By Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa said on Tuesday an estimated 4.2 million South Africans, or just under 10 percent of the population, were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that leads to AIDS.

The figures, extrapolated from a national survey of women attending public antenatal clinics also released Tuesday, confirmed South Africa as having one of the world's highest HIV infection rates.

The ministry of health said the 10th national antenatal HIV survey showed that on a national scale, 22 percent of tested pregnant women were HIV positive.

In the worst hit province of KwaZulu-Natal, one in three women was HIV-positive.

``The epidemiological profile shows that HIV continues to be a very serious health problem in South Africa,'' Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told reporters.

An official at the health ministry said that the results of the antenatal survey showed that people in their twenties constituted more than half of the infected population of 43 million people.

``This has tremendous impact on the social fabric of the country and its economy...(South Africa) faced a future that inevitably will include the AIDS epidemic for at least the next decade,'' the report said.

South Africa faces an alarming AIDS epidemic which will cause intolerable strain on the country's already over-stretched health system.

President Thabo Mbeki has caused controversy by saying he is not convinced that HIV was the single virus causing AIDS or deaths attributed to AIDS.