Migrant Working Fuels South African AIDS Crisis

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Migrant Working Fuels South African AIDS Crisis

Reuters (06/29/99)

A combination of migrant working populations and high rates of sexually transmitted diseases are contributing to the rising incidence of HIV in South Africa, according to Quarraisha Abdool Karim of the Center for Epidemiological Research in Durban. Also, in an editorial in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, Karim noted that the infection rate for women aged 20 to 24 soared from 6.9 percent in 1992 to 21.1 percent in 1994. Female migrant workers are 2.4 times more at risk for HIV than women who stay in one place, and male migrant workers are 7.3 times more at risk than other men. Statistics show that while South Africa has 6 percent of the global population, the country accounts for 10 percent of the global burden of HIV cases.

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