JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African teenagers appear to be practicing safer sex, resulting in a slowdown of HIV infection rates within the critical age group, the country's top health manager said on Thursday.
Signs of change in sexual attitudes would be welcome news for South Africa where 4.2 million people -- or one in 10 of the population -- are already living with HIV and where as many as seven million could die from AIDS within a decade.
"There has been a slowing down (of HIV infection rates) among teenagers...and a continuous decline in syphilis," Ayanda Ntsaluba, Director-General of the Department of Health told reporters, alluding to a trend toward safer sex.
Details of the new trend are expected to be officially unveiled within two weeks when Pretoria releases its annual survey of HIV rates at public antenatal clinics.
A change in approach to sex would denote wider use of condoms and greater knowledge of the dangers of unprotected intercourse. However, Ntsaluba said the infection rate among people in the 25-35 age bracket continued to rise.
Reluctance to practice safe sex has been a major factor in the AIDS epidemic that has spread through South Africa and plagued huge swathes of sub-Saharan Africa.
Nearly half of the South African population is under 20 years old and, despite an official ban on sex before 16, the average age to start sex is 12, compared to an international average of 17. Condom use has traditionally been low.
Teenage girls are most vulnerable to the disease, some contracting the deadly virus from older men. Rape of young women has reached high levels, partly because of a misplaced belief that AIDS can be cured by sex with a virgin.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-SAFRICA-AIDS-DC_TXT.XML
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One door closed is one door opened
One more memory fades away
Such grand dreams we all have chosen
We lost our innocence along the way
- Rose Bygrave, "Innocence"
PsychoticIckyThing.Com
Signs of change in sexual attitudes would be welcome news for South Africa where 4.2 million people -- or one in 10 of the population -- are already living with HIV and where as many as seven million could die from AIDS within a decade.
"There has been a slowing down (of HIV infection rates) among teenagers...and a continuous decline in syphilis," Ayanda Ntsaluba, Director-General of the Department of Health told reporters, alluding to a trend toward safer sex.
Details of the new trend are expected to be officially unveiled within two weeks when Pretoria releases its annual survey of HIV rates at public antenatal clinics.
A change in approach to sex would denote wider use of condoms and greater knowledge of the dangers of unprotected intercourse. However, Ntsaluba said the infection rate among people in the 25-35 age bracket continued to rise.
Reluctance to practice safe sex has been a major factor in the AIDS epidemic that has spread through South Africa and plagued huge swathes of sub-Saharan Africa.
Nearly half of the South African population is under 20 years old and, despite an official ban on sex before 16, the average age to start sex is 12, compared to an international average of 17. Condom use has traditionally been low.
Teenage girls are most vulnerable to the disease, some contracting the deadly virus from older men. Rape of young women has reached high levels, partly because of a misplaced belief that AIDS can be cured by sex with a virgin.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-SAFRICA-AIDS-DC_TXT.XML
------------------
One door closed is one door opened
One more memory fades away
Such grand dreams we all have chosen
We lost our innocence along the way
- Rose Bygrave, "Innocence"
PsychoticIckyThing.Com