Released by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the National Household HIV Prevalence and Risk Survey of South African Children, is funded by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The survey presents an additional analysis of the data collected for the 2002 Nelson Mandela/HSRC Study of HIV/Aids and its findings will be investigated further in a follow-up study later this year.
"The risk of HIV/Aids among children has received little attention in South Africa; however, it appears that children run a much greater risk of contracting the disease than previously thought," said Dr Olive Shisana, executive director of the social aspects of HIV/Aids and health research programme of the HSRC.
Addressing the 2nd African Conference on Social Aspects of HIV/Aids Research in Cape Town yesterday, Shisana said that a total of 3 988 children and teenagers had participated in the survey.
The data shows that 3,3% of the children are orphans who lost a mother, and one tenth of children have lost a parent by the time they were nine years old. By the age of 14,5% have lost a parent. In the 15-18 age group, almost 25% have lost at least one parent.
When it came to the issue of households headed by a child, the survey showed that 3% of children 12–18 years of age said they were the head of the household. Overall, 0,6% of households claimed to be headed by a child between 14–18 years of age. Although this finding is higher than the 0,25% from a previous survey, namely the 1999 October Household Survey, the authors point out that South Africa may not yet have experienced the full impact of HIV/Aids regarding orphans and child-headed households and that the worst is still to come.
It also showed that children who have a higher risk of getting HIV/Aids are African while 45% of children surveyed live in homes where there is not enough money for food and clothing; Of the surveyed households with at least one child in the 2-14 age group, 12,7% ran businesses from home - such as spaza shops and taverns and almost 32% of children are exposed to someone in their home and neighbourhood who is drunk once a month.
Besides mother-to-child infections of HIV/Aids, the study identified three components that make children vulnerable to HIV infection: unsafe environments; a lack of care and protection of children; and a lack of knowledge and communication about sex and HIV/Aids.
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