Women in South Africa might be biologically predisposed to contracting HIV‚ explaining in part why local women are among the world’s most susceptible‚ the newspaper reported.
The US Centres for Disease Control estimates that‚ on average‚ a woman would have to have sex 1000 times with an HIV-positive male to get the virus. But this estimate does not hold in South Africa‚ particularly in rural KwaZulu-Natal‚ where more than half of pregnant women will be HIV-positive by the time they are 25 or older.
Deputy director of the Wits Centre for Reproductive Health and HIV Francois Venter said: “I’m deeply sceptical that sexual behaviour alone drives the epidemic in our area.
“What kind of sex are we Southern Africans having that confers a several thousandfold risk on a young woman in KwaZulu-Natal versus her contemporary in London or Delhi?“
SA's women most at risk of getting HIV
Women in South Africa might be biologically predisposed to contracting HIV‚ explaining in part why local women are among the world’s most susceptible‚ the newspaper reported.
The US Centres for Disease Control estimates that‚ on average‚ a woman would have to have sex 1000 times with an HIV-positive male to get the virus. But this estimate does not hold in South Africa‚ particularly in rural KwaZulu-Natal‚ where more than half of pregnant women will be HIV-positive by the time they are 25 or older.
Deputy director of the Wits Centre for Reproductive Health and HIV Francois Venter said: “I’m deeply sceptical that sexual behaviour alone drives the epidemic in our area.
“What kind of sex are we Southern Africans having that confers a several thousandfold risk on a young woman in KwaZulu-Natal versus her contemporary in London or Delhi?“
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