DURBAN - Despite the increase in access to antiretroviral therapy (Art) since 2000, HIV/Aids is the most common cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.
This according to data from the Global Burden of Disease study, which states that as many as 17% of South Africans aged between 15 and 49 years are living with the disease.
In South Africa, the data showed that HIV/Aids was responsible for
135399 deaths in 2017.
The study was conducted at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in the US, and is the first to comprehensively map HIV prevalence among adults aged between 15 and 49.
The director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr John Nkengasong, said the paper provided geographic estimates of HIV prevalence and the number of people living with HIV, helping to better prioritise areas for health-care support.
“Changing the trajectory of
HIV/Aids in Africa requires that we continue to seek better ways to know the epidemic. This paper will support policymakers and health-care providers in locating hot spots of HIV/Aids at national and sub-national levels. It will also help guide smart investment of scarce resources for diagnosis, prevention and treatment,” Nkengasong said.
In 2017, the highest estimated HIV prevalence at the second administrative level in South Africa was 29.7%, in uMgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
The lowest prevalence of HIV/Aids was 7.6%, in the West Coast District Municipality.
“The study found that the largest number of people aged 15 to 49 living with HIV reside in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality,” the report said.
“Despite the rapid scale-up of Art, 34% of people in East and southern Africa and 60% of people in West and central Africa living with HIV are not currently on treatment, according to Unicef (the UN Children’s Fund).
“Growing population size and the continued high incidence of HIV infection, combined with increased life expectancy among people living with HIV (PLHIV), has led to an increase in PLHIV in sub-Saharan Africa: between 2000 and 2017, the number of people aged 15 to 49 years living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 3 million, even as HIV prevalence declined,” the study read.
The lead author and assistant professor of health metrics science at the university, Dr Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, said: “Global funding for HIV/Aids has declined since 2013, but our research shows the substantial burden that still exists and reveals where geographically targeted interventions might make a big difference.
“Our goal is to provide robust data that can be used to help prevent future infections and ensure appropriate care for people living with HIV.”
The study is available at IHME’s website at www.healthdata.org; data visualisations are available at https://vizhub.healthdata.org/lbd/hiv.
Since 2015, the World Health Organisation has recommended Art for all people living with HIV, because early treatment enables them to live longer and healthier lives and reduces the potential for transmitting the
virus.