Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) -December 8, 2002
No longer must we depend on extrapolations based on assumptions about sexual behaviour. We now know the raw and awful truth based on scientific evidence.
Researchers obtained actual saliva specimens from their research subjects, who were promised anonymity, and had them tested for the virus.
Under the supervision of the redoubtable Olive Shisana, a former director-general of health, the researchers conducted what must rank as the most significant broad-based investigation of the epidemic yet undertaken in this country.
Their finding that 11% of South Africans are infected has confirmed our worst fears.
If there were doubters before, surely none can now deny that Aids and the conditions that allow it to thrive represent our largest social challenge.
Scientists regard an epidemic as having become "generalised" when 5% of a population tests positive for an infection.
We are long past that point.
We would be justified in feeling despair and frustration at our helplessness in the face of such an enormous calamity.
But there are signs of hope and they have been identified in the same survey.
Foremost among them is the recorded change in sexual behaviour among the youths most susceptible to the disease.
There has been a significant increase in the number of youths choosing to abstain from sex or to stay with a single partner, and there appears to be a growing awareness of the need to use condoms to prevent infection.
Awareness of the virus and of how it is transmitted is growing.
All of this vindicates the resources that the government and civil society have invested in educating the youth about the need for lifestyle changes to protect themselves against Aids.
Much more can be done to raise the level of awareness.
But prevention alone will not stop this epidemic. Treatment is also needed. Significantly, the survey also showed that public belief was low that the government would meet its rhetoric with the delivery of resources to fight Aids.
The perception lingers that the health authorities are not acting with enough haste to implement their promise to provide antiretroviral drugs.
The prospect of managing the illness with drug therapy will encourage those who are hiding their HIV-positive status to come forward and confront their illness.
If they take that step, they must be met with compassion and with the drugs that are their best hope of leading a full life.
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