South Africa faces uphill battle to reduce infection rates among young women

Pulse Staff 08:35 - 10 May 2016

Nandi Makhele, 25, poses for a portrait while wearing a T-shirt indicating that she is HIV-positive, in Cape Town's Khayelitsha township, file.

Interventions in South Africa, which has the world's largest HIV and Aids treatment programme, has seen Aids deaths decline to 140,000 in 2014 from 320,000 in 2010, he said.

South Africa recorded half of the 5,000 new infections a week among young women out of 14 southern and Eastern African countries, the health minister said on Tuesday.

"When it comes to the area of socio-behavioral interventions, it is an uphill battle, especially in the age group 15-24 year old girls and young women," Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told parliament.

The number of mother-to-child transmission of HIV has fallen significantly to less than 7,000 babies in 2015 from 70,000 babies in 2004, Motsoaledi said.