Silent killer among us!

In recent times, most newspapers, magazines, radio and television headlines have been dominated by political and to a lesser extent, economic topics. South Africa continues to be ravaged by the HIV/AIDS scourge which is intent on destroying our society. During the early 1990’s stories about HIV and AIDS and campaigns aimed at arresting the spread of the disease, were all over the news, yet today the media is silent on this disease. If there is any reporting on the disease, it certainly does not make headline news and consequently, HIV/AIDS, like TB before it, is fast becoming a silent killer in our society.

According to Avert, the HIV/AIDS prevalence among antenatal clinic attendees in South Africa has grown from 24.8% in 2001 to 30.2% in 2010. This means that the number of pregnant mothers who have HIV/AIDS has increased during this timeframe. What is alarming about this statistic is that for some of the mothers, the disease will be passed on to their newborn babies through breast-feeding either due to ignorance or simply because of lack of financial resources to access breast milk substitute products.

Interestingly, while the Western Cape has the second lowest prevalence of HIV/AIDS among antenatal clinic attendees, the province has seen the sharpest rise of prevalence figures among this group, from 8.6% in 2001 to 18.5% in 2010. Kwa-Zulu Natal has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence among this same group, at 39.5%.  The HIV/AIDS figures in themselves are very concerning however, in my opinion, these figures are a symptom of a much more concerning social milieu, one of a nation still riddled with poverty.

To solve the HIV/AIDS problem, our government must do much more to improve the economic fortunes of the citizens.