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Tamar Kahn
2005-06-09

At least 10000 public sector teachers needed AIDS drugs, Olive Shisana, former health director-general and head of the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC's) HIV/AIDS research unit, said yesterday.

The figures highlight the effect HIV/AIDS is having on the public education system, which is seeing increased teacher absenteeism as teachers fall ill, care for sick relatives, and attend funerals, she said. Citing recent research conducted for the Education Labour Relations Council, Shisana told delegates to the second national AIDS conference that teacher deaths due to AIDS could be halved by 2010 if 90% of them received the drugs they needed. The study did not identify how many teachers were taking anti-retrovirals, but Shisana said that as two-thirds of teachers were members of medical schemes, those that were already on therapy were probably obtaining the drugs in the private sector.

The HSRC estimates that 5,6-million South Africans are infected with HIV. Figures from the AIDS Law Project indicate that only about one in seven of the 700 000 people who need AIDS drugs are receiving them. The HSRC study, which surveyed 17000 teachers, found 12,7% of them were HIV positive. There was a distinct racial variation, with 16% of black African teachers infected, and just 1% of white, coloured, and Indian teachers infected with the disease. The HSRC's study also highlighted limited condom use among teachers who knew they were HIV positive, with a third of them saying they did not consistently use condoms with their partners. The health department distributes 40-million condoms a month, but condoms are not available in schools.

Low levels of condom use indicates teachers are not receiving adequate counselling about HIV. Shisana called for condoms to be distributed in schools to prevent new HIV infections. We need a policy shift, Shisana said. The former official said there was a dearth of HIV/AIDS programmes in schools, and urged the education department to develop initiatives that targeted teachers, particularly women living in rural areas. Schools should be the nucleus of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes for their surrounding communities, she said. Shisana also highlighted wide provincial variations in HIV prevalence rates among teachers that echoed the pattern in the general population.

The rates ranged from 21,8% among teachers in KwaZulu-Natal to 1,1% in Western Cape. Mpumalanga (19%) and Eastern Cape (13,8%) were also badly affected, partly due to the high poverty levels, said Shisana. Data on the effect of HIV/AIDS on pupils would be released later this year, she said.

(Source: Business Day, June 9, 2005)

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