Launch of New Provincial HIV Prevention Strategy

He said well-documented studies from settings where reversals in the epidemic have been recorded, show that the delay of sexual debut, even if it is only for one year, has a significant impact. This change in behaviour will help to reduce the HIV prevalence in the 15-24 year age group. He said that shocking statistics indicate that the epidemic is getting "younger", and that it affects mostly young women.

This year's international theme is "Stop Aids, keep the promise". Uys said these promises primarily involve the parents, but also political leadership, community-based organisations, faith-based groups, schools and traditional leaders. "HIV and Aids are among us, it is not curable, and we can only win against the epidemic if we join hands to change our youth's behaviour." It is his department's aim to reduce HIV prevalence in this specific group by at least 25% by 2010.

There were also other pillars of the new prevention strategy that Minister Uys tackled hands-on - all of them boiling down to a major shift in our people's behavioural patterns.

Uys said exploitation of younger women by older men is also a major problem, as surveys found that during 2003/2004, 37% of women in Khayelitsha aged 14-49 years had partners who were more than 5 years older than themselves. Older male partners are a significant HIV risk.

Reducing the number of concurrent partners is also essential as a definite reversal in the epidemic is noticeable where people have only one sexual partner.

"This year we distributed 33 million free condoms in the Western Cape alone, and we want to increase this number next year," Uys said. There is also well-documented evidence that the consistent use of condoms has a significant impact on reducing HIV transmission. In order for this prevention method to make an impact, the current annual uptake of 22 condoms per adult male in the Western Cape will be increased to 100 condoms per adult male by the year 2010.

Uys said that Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) is the first entry point in order to determine your status, and to keep a personal promise to protect your own health and well being. VCT is available in most of the 450 public health facilities in the province where well-trained health workers will conduct the test in a dignified manner.

Issued by the Directorate: Communications for the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health.

Contact:

Herman v.d. Westhuizen: 082 772 9161