Cape Town - Women are more at risk than ever of HIV infection as teenagers are having sex earlier, with different partners and using condoms less – and with alcohol fuelling all age groups towards unsafe sex and violence.
Experts presented their findings on gender and substance abuse in relation to HIV at the South African Medical Research Council’s impact forum on Tuesday.
Professor Leickness Simbayi, head of the HIV and Aids, STI and TB research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council, pointed out some alarming trends.
More teenagers are having sex before the age of 15, with 16 percent of boys having had their first sexual experience at 14 or younger.
Age-disparate sexual relationships are also on the rise, with more teenagers between 15 and 19 having sex with a partner who is at least five years older. Not many boys were in such relationships, but 33.6 percent of girls were having sex with a significantly older partner.
Condom use rose in the years up to 2008 – then dropped sharply with the last data collected in 2012. Results show that a slight majority of South Africans 15 years and older have never used a condom.
More men than women have multiple sexual partners, but the number is growing for both sexes.
Finally, knowledge about HIV among the most at-risk population groups has dropped.
But there’s a silver lining: Simbayi said the country’s HIV testing numbers were among the best in the world, with men lagging behind women but still showing a good turn-out.
Social Development MEC Albert Fritz attested to the link between drinking and violent behaviour.
“I remember in 2010, in one weekend in Nyanga, 22 people were killed, mainly women,” he said. “The youngest person raped was an 18-month-old baby.”
The following weekend, police raided illegal shebeens and disrupted drinking in the area. The death count dropped to two.
Meanwhile, mayco member for health Benedicta van Minnen said the youth needed access to sexual health centres that offered service and information without judgement.
“Youth are not receptive to adults telling them what they should do,” she said. “The drug problem is everybody’s problem.”
Cape Argus