South Africa's HIV poplulation to rise to 6m in 5 years:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Some six million South Africans will be HIV carriers by 2005, the country's health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has predicted. The estimated number of HIV-positive people in 1996 was 2.4 million. Around 1,600 of the population are infected with the virus each day and 60% of the patients at Johannesburg's biggest hospital suffer from HIV-related diseases. Dr Tshabalala-Msimang said the spread of HIV in South Africa has been the "fastest and the worst" compared to other countries and the government needs to focus on public education in prevention of the disease.