Culture of sexual violence puts S. African youth at high HIV/AIDS risk: study

Misconceptions about sexual violence among South African youth put them at high risk of HIV infection, according to a study of links between sexual violence and HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

The study among some 270,000 schoolchildren aged between 10 and19 sounded alarms again in the country that has already been ridden by both violent crimes such as rape and AIDS epidemic, researchers who conducted the study said on Monday.

One third of the respondents thought they might be HIV positivealready, even though some youth who thought they were HIV positivewere not yet sexually active, and 16 percent said they would spread HIV intentionally if they knew they were infected.

Half of the surveyed did not know or did not believe condoms are effective in preventing pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases or HIV, and only 60 percent said they would be willing tobe tested for HIV, the study discovered.

"We're seeing evidence of a culture of sexual violence in SouthAfrica," said Dr. Neil Andersson, executive director of CIET International, a non-governmental organization that conducted the survey.

"This way youth have learnt to live with our endemic violence is taking its toll among our children and making them more vulnerable to HIV infection and AIDS," said Andersson.

The study found 60 percent of boys and girls alike think it is not violence to force sex with someone they know, and some 66 percent of these boys and 71 percent of girls had themselves been subjected to forced sex.

Almost 13 percent of the youth still believed the myth that sexwith a virgin will cure AIDS, the study discovered.

"When they should be learning how to say no and how to negotiate their way out of threatening situations, the attitude ofmany young people seems to increase their risks," said Andersson.

Seven million South Africans, or 15.2 percent of the country's population, have been infected by HIV, the AIDS virus, the Statistics South Africa said in July.

Unprotected sex is considered as the leading cause of the spread of HIV. Another survey among 17,450 youths aged between 15 and 24 showed that about 77 percent of young South Africans infected with HIV are women.

Although condoms are available free of charge at all clinics inSouth Africa, 31 percent of the surveyed youth said they never used one, according to the survey published in May.

The 2003-2004 police statistics showed that on average, 144 people are raped each day across South Africa. But many suspect that whether this number has not shown the true picture of violentsexual crimes in the country, because far more victims are believed not having reported their cases to the police.

Source: Xinhua