Hiv Aids In South Africa

This second edition of the book provides up-to-date information on new drugs, new proven HIV prevention interventions, a new chapter on positive prevention, and current HIV epidemiology. This definitive text covers all aspects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, from basic science to medicine, sociology, economics and politics. It has been written by a highly respected team of South African HIV/AIDS experts and provides a thoroughly researched account of the epidemic in the region.

Few people realize that the familiar HIV/AIDS global statistics are actually estimates. For example, UNAIDS estimated that the Republic of South Africa had 140,000 HIV/AIDS deaths in 1997. However, after tabulating all deaths for 1997, the Republic of South Africa attributed only 6,635 deaths to HIV/AIDS. Such discrepancies are rarely noted. The Republic of South Africa (RSA) stands as the exemplar of these discrepancies, and is reputed to have the world's largest AIDS epidemic with an estimated 5.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) in 2008. Such PLWH estimates, as with the estimates of HIV/AIDS deaths, are highly questionable. The reasons behind these discrepancies are clarified by describing two common misunderstandings of HIV infection that contribute to poor mathematical modeling outcomes. Unfortunately, the health authorities in the Republic of South Africa grant more validity to computer-generated estimates than to their own empirical death counts. The author discusses why these modeled estimates, and the HIV sero-prevalence surveys upon which they are based, are simply implausible. Presented with full references are raw numerical data on: the tabulated number of HIV/AIDS deaths in the RSA; the number of AIDS cases detected by RSA disease surveillance systems; UNAIDS/WHO estimates for AIDS deaths in the RSA; and UNAIDS/WHO estimates for the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the RSA. The total cumulative HIV/AIDS cases in the United States and Africa are also presented for comparison, and to place the African and RSA data within appropriate epidemiological context. Overall, these data span from 1981 to 2009. Altogether, these data, plus additional information detailing the nature of HIV infection and heterosexual HIV transmission rates, explain why the hyperbolic mathematical estimates and HIV antibody test surveys - the primary sources of HIV/AIDS data in Africa - are simply implausible.

South Africa has the world's largest number of people living with HIV. This book offers a history of AIDS activism in South Africa from its origins in gay and anti-apartheid activism to the formation and consolidation of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), including its central role in the global HIV treatment access movement.

Why are more women than men in South Africa HIV positive? What explains the exponential growth of AIDS in the country? How is HIV/AIDS understood in various cultural belief systems? What can be done about the epidemic? This powerful book -- incorporating evocative photographs and the voices of scholars, practitioners, and victims of the epidemic -- looks at the social, cultural, and historical aspects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. -- Back cover.

HIV/AIDS is a catastrophe globally but nowhere more so than in sub-Saharan Africa, which in 2008 accounted for 67 percent of cases worldwide and 91 percent of new infections. The Institute of Medicine recommends that the United States and African nations move toward a strategy of shared responsibility such that these nations are empowered to take ownership of their HIV/AIDS problem and work to solve it.

A follow-up to the Nelson Mandela Foundation's 2002 national household survey of HIV/AIDS prevalence in South Africa, this 2005 report seeks to provide further understanding of the HIV pandemic. Using data that tested for HIV incidence rather than just using mortality statistics, this study looks at which socio-demographic groups are most vulnerab≤ whether new policies have been successful in fighting the disease; what exactly is being done by key players, such as the government, churches, and other civil society organizations; and how the spread of HIV can be reduced in South Africa.

In this book, France's leading medical anthropologist takes on one of the most tragic stories of the global AIDS crisis—the failure of the ANC government to stem the tide of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Didier Fassin traces the deep roots of the AIDS crisis to apartheid and, before that, to the colonial period. One person in ten is infected with HIV in South Africa, and President Thabo Mbeki has initiated a global controversy by funding questionable medical research, casting doubt on the benefits of preventing mother-to-child transmission, and embracing dissidents who challenge the viral theory of AIDS. Fassin contextualizes Mbeki's position by sensitively exploring issues of race and genocide that surround this controversy. Basing his discussion on vivid ethnographical data collected in the townships of Johannesburg, he passionately demonstrates that the unprecedented epidemiological crisis in South Africa is a demographic catastrophe as well as a human tragedy, one that cannot be understood without reference to the social history of the country, in particular to institutionalized racial inequality as the fundamental principle of government during the past century.

This Definitive Text covers all aspects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, from basic science to medicine, sociology, economics and politics. It has been written by a highly respected team of South African HIV/AIDS experts and provides a thoroughly researched account of the epidemic in the region. The book comprises seven sections, the first of which describes the evolving epidemic, presents the numbers behind the epidemic, and captures its nature in one of the worst affected parts of the world. This is followed by a section on the science of the virus, covering its structure and its diagnosis. HIV risk factors and prevention strategies, focal population groups and the impact of HIV/AIDS in all aspects of South African life are discussed in the next four sections. The final sections look at the treatment of HIV/AIDS, the politics of HIV/AIDS treatment, mathematical modelling to extrapolate the potential impact of treatment and finally a discussion of the future of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. This text has been written at an accessible level for the general reader, undergraduate and postgraduate students, health care providers, researchers and policymakers in this field as well as international scholars studying HIV/AIDS in Africa. Book jacket.