The latest assessment of HIV cases in South Africa has resulted in the identification of more than a quarter of young girls as HIV positive.
More than 28% of all the schoolgirls in South Africa are HIV positive, according to a release in the local media of statistics released by the health ministry.
The admission by the health minister has in his own words "destroyed my soul". In addition the minister released information on the schoolboy HIv rate which is close to 4%.
What this has brought to light, is that many of the schoolgirls are having sex not with their age counterparts, but with much older men. This is a phenomenon that is called 'sugar daddying' where an older male will pay the young students to have sex, in a part of the world that has one of the worst poverty rates, Soweto.
In addition, 94,000 schoolgirls became pregnant in 2011 in South Africa, some of them as young as 10.
South Africa is quickly becoming the epicenter of HIV cases, although mortality rates have improved due to access to antiviral drugs.
The South African HIV program is the largest in the world, treating as many as 1.7 million people.
One of the measure recently introduced by the government is a distribution of condoms campaign and voluntary testing of school age children.
Source: France 24/ 31.14.13
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