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SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS hits one in five Jo'burg homes

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 5 September (PLUSNEWS) - South African public health specialist Dr Clive Evian says one in every five households in Johannesburg suburbs could have an HIV-positive person.

He put the prevalence of HIV in households with domestic workers and gardeners as high as 15 percent to 20 percent, and estimated that 30 percent of pregnant women aged between 25 and 35 in Gauteng province were HIV-positive.

Evian told the local Business Day newspaper, "When you look at these figures and apply them to the Johannesburg population [about 3.2 million], [then] between the homeowner, the domestic workers, gardener or their children, it's likely that one in every four or five houses in the suburbs will have at least one person with HIV."

Expressing concern over the degree of ignorance about HIV testing procedures among suburban staff as well as employers, Evian noted that the government was failing to use the media to inform and educate people about the pandemic.

[ENDS]

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