Newsweek : reported that Why America's South Still Has Such High HIV Rates

In 2015, African-Americans constituted 86 percent of all new HIV diagnoses and 85 percent of the total population living with HIV. Finally, health care and funding disparities have long plagued the South and have contributed to the rising rates of HIV in the region. Black women also face an unequal burden, comprising 69 percent of all HIV diagnoses among women in the South. Such health care policies, along with poor health care infrastructure, lack of qualified health professionals and geographic isolation, have resulted in substandard or nonexistent health services and treatment for those most in need. But in the South, this percentage is much higher, with African-Americans accounting for 54 percent of new HIV diagnoses in 2014.

A sex worker's view on South Africa's latest plans to beat HIV

I am many things other than a sex worker: sex work does not define me. In addition to drug rehabs, sex workers need help to get out of the industry, if that's what they want. It must empower organisations working with sex workers to address problems around gender based violence and human rights violations. Sex work is work. Zenande argues that the plan's good intentions will be undermined by the fact that sex work remains a criminal offence in South Africa.

New HIV Infections Climb Among Young Women in South Africa

Heywood says more than 200 young women, ages 15 to 24, are infected with HIV each day in South Africa. Health care workers in South Africa say transactional sex is a key driver of the new infections among young women in the country. Like Sathekge, many poor young women in South Africa have "transactional" sexual relationships with older men who have jobs and money. In 2015, that demographic accounted for the largest segment of new HIV infections in South Africa and a disproportionate number of new cases in the region. Adolescent and young women made up a quarter of the new cases in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS most recent global report.


collected by :Lucy William
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