Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - July 30, 2000
Laurice Taitz
A study by the Medical Research Council has found that the rate of HIV infection is much higher among white South Africans than among white populations in Europe and the United States, where the figure is 0.6%.
The 2% figure was far higher than the figures of below 1% that have been reported from blood-bank data - previously the only source of information.
The study, which contains the first published South African data on race groups other than Africans, found that the proportion of people infected with HIV was just over 2% among Indians and more than 3% among coloureds.
The research council's study was conducted among the workforce of a national company employing more than 35 000 people in all nine provinces. Groups of workers were randomly selected at 34 sites countrywide.
More than 5 000 people volunteered to take part in the study. Employees were asked to fill in a questionnaire and to provide blood or saliva for testing.
Until now, estimates of HIV infection in South Africa have been based exclusively on data from an annual survey of government antenatal clinics, which have sampled mostly black women. These studies have found infection rates ranging between 5% and 32%.
Mark Colvin, a researcher at the Medical Research Council's HIV/AIDS programme, based in Durban, said: "This is the first time we really have a picture of how the epidemic is affecting men and non-black women in a working population.
Colvin said the level of HIV infection among white South Africans in 2000 was similar to the level among black South Africans in 1992.
He said the figures for whites could mean either that they were lagging behind the black community or that whites were on a diff erent epidemic curve.
One reason for the difference could be the protection afforded by stable family units.
The study showed that HIV infection could be linked to the type of accommodation occupied by workers.
For example, migrant workers who stayed in hostels or travelling workers who spent more time away from home, or stayed in construction camps, were at higher risk of being infected with HIV than workers who stayed in rented houses or in their own homes.
The study also showed that HIV infection among employed people could be linked to job category.
The prevalence of HIV was much lower among middle and senior managers than it was among semi-skilled and skilled workers.
Colvin said: "By the time the epidemic hit South Africa, the upper classes had been forewarned and had more of a capacity to protect themselves."
This is different from the pattern of the epidemic in Kenya and Zambia, where it hit many years earlier and infected people in the wealthier classes.
The findings show that HIV infection among women in the general South African population peaks earlier, at around the age of 20, and then drops sharply with age, but among men infection levels peak at around the age of 35 and remain high.
Dr Clive Evian, a Johannesburg-based consultant who specialises in HIV/AIDS-related issues and their impact on the workplace, said there would only be a gradual increase in HIV infection among whites.
"The lives of white people in this country have been much more stable and have not been subjected to the same disruption of family life and socio-economic instability that black people have," he said.
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