AEGiS-SAPA: HIV prevalence in private security industry at 16%

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

HIV prevalence in private security industry at 16%

South African Press Association - January 24, 2008

HIV/Aids prevalence in the private security industry is at 15,9% and in the legal services industry it is at 13,8%, a study compiled by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has shown. The study on the impact and responses to HIV/Aids in the private security and legal services industry in South Africa was commissioned by the Safety and Security Sector Education and Training Authority. Research was carried out among 2 787 participants from private security services in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, who agreed to be interviewed and of those, 2 224 agreed to supply a blood sample for an HIV test.

A total of 421 participants from the legal services sector including lawyers, legal secretaries, and clerks, agreed to be interviewed in the survey and 341 agreed to be tested. In the security sector, men had a slightly higher prevalence at 17,3% against women at 12,3%. Black South Africans had a substantially higher prevalence of 27,3% compared to that of other race groups at less than 1%. More than one-eighth of the participants had two or more sexual partners while the largest majority, 86,7%, had only one regular sexual partner. People younger than 24-years-old reported relatively high levels of condom use during the past 12 months.

In the legal services sector, women had a slightly higher infection rate of 14,4%, compared to that of men at 12,4%. Black South Africans had a significant higher HIV prevalence than the other race groups -- 20,2% against 1,7% -- and the 25-year-old to 49-year-old age group was more severely affected at 16% than the age group of 50 years and older at 5,7%. One third of the men in the legal services had two or more sexual partners compared to only one-twentieth of their female counterparts. In this sector most businesses did not regard HIV/Aids as a business concern, and they also did not make any attempt to measure the potential impact of the syndrome.

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