The migration of
South African workers played a major part in the spread
of AIDS, says a study in the journal AIDS.
For two years,
researchers from Brown University, Harvard Medical School,
and Imperial College London collected data from 500 men and
women in province of KwaZulu/Natal and found that
high-risk sexual behavior of migratory workers
contributed to the spread of HIV. They found that
without migration--and the increases in unsafe sex
caused by migration--peak HIV prevalence would
be less than 5% for workers and their sexual partners.
In contrast, data showed migrant men had 26% HIV
prevalence and 21% among their partners.
To earn a living,
many male South Africans leave their rural homes to
work in urban factories or mining towns, then return to
their villages a few times each year.
"Migrant
men were four times as likely to have a casual sexual
partner than nonmigrant men. So when coupled with an
increase in unprotected sex, we found the frequent
return of migrant workers to be an important risk
factor for HIV," said Mark Lurie, an assistant
professor in the Department of Community Health at
Brown, in a statement. "Now we know that
migration is at least one critical driver. While this
knowledge comes too late to stop the epidemic in South
Africa, it provides a warning for countries elsewhere
in Africa and Asia. In other highly mobile places, HIV
prevention programs need to address increased risk
behavior and do so early, when these efforts can make a
difference."
South Africa has
one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection.
UNAIDS estimates 5.5 million South Africans were living with
HIV in 2005, and roughly 1,000 AIDS deaths occur in
South Africa every day. (The Advocate)
Grammy-nominated Chappell Roan has four-word response to management split story