US helps to fight teacher Aids
2005-10-04 18:24
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Johannesburg - South Africa and the United States launched a $3.4m (about R22m) programme to contain the alarming spread of HIV/Aids among school teachers in three badly hit provinces.
The project will target teachers in eastern KwaZulu-Natal, where almost 22% of teachers are HIV-positive, northern Mpumalanga and the coastal Eastern Cape region.
The project follows a study by South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) which found the HIV/Aids prevalence rate among teachers at 12.7%, although that figure shot up to 21.4% in the 25-34 age group.
Willy Madisha, president of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, said: "We have to move beyond the red ribbon... A silent war is raging - many of our teachers die silently. We are facing a disaster."
Under the two-year programme funded by the US government, 15 000 representatives will train their peers on issues ranging from fighting stigma in the workplace to promoting awareness and condom use and encouraging testing.
Rural areas are 'hot spots'
In addition, 2 300 teachers and their spouses who have CD4 cell counts lower than 200, meaning they are in full-blown Aids, will be provided with free antiretroviral drugs.
The nationwide study conducted in 2004 also found that rural areas were "hot spots" for teachers living with Aids, with eastern KwaZulu-Natal ranking first at 21.8%, followed by northern Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.
Last year, 4 000 teachers died of Aids, of whom 80% were under 45, the study showed.
It also showed that a third of all teachers were affected by Aids, mostly because a relative or friend had died of the disease in the past two years.
- AFP