Don’t let Covid overshadow Aids

As coronavirus and state capture occupy so much of the news agenda in 2020 – not to mention gender-based violence – that other very real issue in South Africa, HIV/Aids, has been muscled out of our collective conscience. Given that today is World Aids Day – and that South Africa has the dubious distinction of having the highest infection rate for the disease – we should all pause for thought.

There are 7.7 million people living with HIV in South Africa, or almost one in seven. HIV prevalence in people aged between 15 and 19 stands at 19%, yet that among sex workers is 57.7%.

There were 200 000 new infections last year and also 72 000 Aids deaths. By comparison, about 22 000 people have died from Covid in the roughly 10 months since the pandemic hit our shores.

Those HIV numbers can seem shocking but what needs to be considered is the fact that, while people are dying, many millions more are living their lives with HIV. That is because, while SA has one of the highest incidences of this virus in the world, it also has one of the most effective awareness and treatment systems.

Of course, it was not always so and we must never forget the thousands of Aids sufferers who died during the years Thabo Mbeki was president, because of his refusal to accept the widespread adoption of antiretroviral drugs.

We must also wonder, even after all the evidence we have of the seriousness of HIV and the ways it is transmitted, why people persist in reckless behaviour, including having unprotected sex.

Teenage pregnancy rates are particularly worrying because they show our young people playing Russian roulette with their health.

People have to be responsible for their own health when it comes to HIV and to Covid-19.