South Africa, the country with the most cases of HIV in the world, recorded its first significant drop in the number of people infected, according to a study published Monday.
According to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), a South African public research institute, which conducted a survey of 76,000 people, the percentage of South Africans carrying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) leading to to AIDS decreased by 1.3% between 2017 and 2022, from 14% to 12.7% of the population.
Thus, in 2022 some 7.8 million South Africans out of the 62 million inhabitants were carrying the virus compared to 7.9 million in 2017, the date of the last survey.
The reasons for the decline are complex, said Khangelani Zuma, director of the HSRC and chief researcher of the survey.
Despite a drop in the number of virus carriers in all provinces, the east of the country and in particular the Zulu region remain the most affected. The black community is the most affected.
Mr Zuma also noted that “people are living longer with HIV than before”, particularly thanks to the increasing use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) which has radically changed the outlook for people with AIDS/HIV.
However, South Africa alone still represents a third of African cases, with more than 85,000 annual deaths from AIDS in recent years.
The study is concerned about the high number of women and young people infected. “We know that older men are infecting younger women,” said John Blandford, South Africa director of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Abroad. (Pepfar), which has spent more than $100 billion to fight the epidemic over the past twenty years.
They stressed that these new infections are linked to a decline in the use of condoms, an effective tool for preventing the spread of AIDS.