Health
Lessons From the Country With World’s Largest HIV Epidemic
- Reducing transmission in young South African women remains key
- As people with HIV live longer, aging well becomes salient
A South African woman gets tested for HIV. The impact of the nation’s HIV epidemic disproportionately affects Black South Africans, women and young people.
Photographer: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
South Africa, with the world’s biggest number of HIV cases, has in the past five years reduced the percentage of its population infected with the virus that causes the immune disease AIDS.
With an estimated 7.8 million people, or 12.7% of the population, living with the disease, the results of the 2022 South Africa HIV survey released Monday by the Human Sciences Research Council shows “South Africa is on the right track,” said Khangelani Zuma, the study’s lead investigator.