South Africa: Tracking HIV Infection Rate in Students
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
27 August 2008
Posted to the web 27 August 2008
Sue Blaine
Johannesburg
ONE of the largest surveys on HIV/AIDS se roprevalence in the world is under way at SA's 23 universities and universities of technology, it was announced yesterday.
The survey aims to track the extent and effect of the problem at SA's higher education institutions by testing the HIV infection status of 25000 students and staff, their knowledge, perceptions and attitudes to the epidemic, and their behaviour towards it, said Dr Shaidah Asmall , programme director of Higher Education SA's (Hesa's) Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme (HEAIDS).
The results would be released early next year.
SA depends on HIV/AIDS statistics taken from the government's antenatal clinics and for this reason the survey would be of interest to researchers , said Prof Salim Abdool Karim, pro vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Testing began on August 11 at the University of Stellenbosch and the research team, lead by Dr Mark Colvin, aims to reach their testing target by the end of October.
Students are randomly selected and asked to voluntarily complete a socio-behavioural questionnaire and have a blood sample taken. The two documents are linked via a barcode, but no names are taken and it is impossible to link the results to particular students, Colvin said.
The survey is being funded from within HEAIDS, which received about R160m from the European Programme for Reconstruction and Development for 2006-09.
While there were about 750000 students at SA's tertiary education institutions , only about 350000 were "contact" students who were on campus daily. These students were the focus of the study, Prof Mvuyo Tom, vice-chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, said.
General statistics for SA show that people between the ages of 15 and 24 have the highest prevalence of HIV infection , with between 20,5% and 30,8% of women and 8,5% and 12,8% of men in this age group infected, according to health department statistics.
However, H esa hopes this study will reveal that the prevalence among students is lower.
"Graduates are the lifeblood of society and the economy of their country.... Prevalence (among students) may not be the same as the general population and we hope it is lower because these are a select group of individuals," Asmall said.
So far there had been good responses from students at the universities where testing had already taken place , Colvin said.
Because it was often "a small step" from participating in this kind of anonymous survey to finding out one's HIV status, students would be encouraged to take advantage of the testing and counselling services available on their campuses, he said.
While HIV/AIDS had been a problem in SA for more than a decade, and it could be argued that a survey like this should have been done earlier, the time was right because much had changed in SA in terms of the availability of treatment, Karim said.
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The stigma about the epidemic was also decreasing and higher education institutions now had substantial HIV/AIDS programmes in place to help students , he said.
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