The council released the key findings of the Sixth South African HIV Prevalence, Incidence, and Behaviour Survey in Polokwane.Although Limpopo has the lowest HIV prevalence, the findings also showed that in 2022, HIV prevalence in the province was disproportionately higher among the 25 to 49 age group.The survey also revealed that 11.4% of people aged 15 years and older in Limpopo were reported to have multiple sexual partners in 2022, a decrease from 12.0% in 2017.
Notably, 18.5% of men were 3.7 times more likely to report having multiple sexual partners than 5% of women. The highest proportion of multiple sexual partners was found among those aged between 15 and 24 years, compared to other age groups. HSRC Principal Investigator, Professor Khangelani Zuma, says although the HIV prevalence has decreased, it doesn’t mean that people should not use protection.
“The decline in HIV prevalence in a country can happen because of, I would say two reasons. For example, one of them could be that if you have a particular group of people living with HIV, if people die because of HIV, or more people die who are living with HIV than other people, then the prevalence will go down because the prevalence is the burden of disease…it is the proportion of people that live with an infection; that’s one of the reasons where we can see decline.