Rich Africans more prone to contracting HIV, report shows
June 15, 2006
By Neesa Moodley
Durban - Rich Africans had a higher chance of contracting HIV/Aids due to their risky sexual behaviour patterns, dispelling the common perception that HIV/Aids was limited to the poor, the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) conference heard this week.
The statement, based on research by Vinod Mishra of ORC Macro, an opinion research company, raises concerns for companies that could lose highly skilled workers in the years ahead.
Mishra said 29 percent of women in the high-income bracket in Lesotho were HIV positive, compared with 20 percent in the low-income bracket.
In Tanzania, 11 percent in the high-income bracket were HIV positive, compared with 3 percent in the low-income bracket.
According to Mishra, while there was an international correlation between poverty and HIV/Aids prevalence, closer inspection showed this was not the case in southern Africa. The wealthier countries, such as South Africa, had persistently high HIV/Aids prevalence statistics and studies showed that people in the high-income brackets were more likely to cheat on their partners or indulge in casual sex.
The implications for companies are huge, implying a loss of skills at a higher level if HIV/Aids is not taken more seriously.
The cost of successfully treating an HIV/Aids patient was estimated at R7 285 a year, Sydney Rosen, an assistant professor at Boston University, said earlier this week. Rosen was discussing the preliminary results of a study funded by Pepfar and the US Agency for International Development, which looked at the cost effectiveness of different models of antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.
Six sites across South Africa were selected for the study, with initial results coming from the Helen Joseph Hospital HIV clinic. The clinic is the largest ARV roll-out site in the country, with just under 5 000 patients on ARVs.
The first 100 patients at each site since January 2005 were included in the study. Rosen said the definition of "successfully treated patients" for the purpose of the study included patients with an undetectable viral load, a CD4 increase of about 70 blood cells, or who showed no signs of Aids-opportunistic infections within a year of treatment.
Rosen said there had been a 70 percent success rate at the Helen Joseph HIV clinic, with a total cost of R509 939. The study was not complete and would look at issues of cost effectiveness and the monthly costs per patient. |
