HIV/AIDS {Thursday, March 5}

Tonight we had a British doctor come to our house to share her insight on HIV/AIDS here in South Africa. The local hospital is very under-staffed and most of the doctors are from other countries- England and Australia seem to be common. Here’s some basic info…

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV becomes AIDS, or Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. In short, this disease is a virus that attacks the immune system.

The life expectancy in SA is 37 for women, and 39 for men. Most AIDS patients are 24-34 years old. The doctor approximated that 80% of hospital patients here are suffering with AIDS. She added how embedded the stigma is here. Even in the hospitals, nurses and doctors are still very hush-hush in acknowledging the disease. The most at risk group in this area of SA are married women (so many men are unfaithful to their spouse, or in some cases have multiple wives). I found that very interesting.

Quick stats:
-In Sub-Saharan Africa, 28 million ppl are infected {2 million children} with HIV
-25 million HIV deaths globally since 1981
-2.8 million deaths in 2005 – half million of which were children
-12 million AIDS orphans
-5.7 million people infected in South Africa- world’s highest caseload
-600-1000 deaths per day
-In South Africa, 1 in 3 pregnant women is HIV positive