IT IS commonly acknowledged that the Department of Health’s roll-out of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to South Africans living with HIV has saved — and continues to save — thousands of lives.It prevents families from losing loved ones and allows breadwinners to keep working. This is especially relevant to the mining sector, with a mainly male, migrant workforce, many of whom are the sole breadwinners for their families.But the success of the ART programme is simply a battle won in a war we will wage for years, and there is cause for concern over both the high rate of existing and, especially, new HIV infections.The 2012 Human Sciences Research Council report on HIV/AIDS found an increased prevalence of infections in the population. One reason for this, ironically, is the success of the ART programme, which means there are more people living with HIV, rather than developing AIDS and dying.In 2012, about 2-million of the country’s 6.4-million HIV-positive people were on ART. Here is ...
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