Durban — A shift in HIV prevalence among pregnant women has been noted and it indicates a decline in 2022 after holding steady since 2004.
This is according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ latest Public Health Bulletin (PHBSA) around the key findings of its 2022 Antenatal HIV Sentinel Survey.
This is against the backdrop of the fact that in South Africa, 7.5 million individuals are living with HIV, and there is a high prevalence of HIV infection among adolescent girls and women.
PHBSA’s professor Basil Brooke says that the above-mentioned demographic is a primary focus for HIV testing, antiretroviral therapy (ART), and biennial antenatal care HIV sentinel surveillance surveys.
“These surveys play a pivotal role in monitoring HIV prevalence among pregnant women over time, broken down by age and location.”
The survey found that encouragingly, a high level of awareness regarding HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage was observed among pregnant women living with HIV.
“However, it is noteworthy that the proportion of pregnant women with HIV who were cognisant of their HIV status and had started ART prior to pregnancy experienced a decline,” said Brooke.
During the surveillance period (February 28 – April 8), a national representative sample of 37 828 pregnant women from 1 589 public health facilities across 52 districts of South Africa was enrolled in the survey.
It revealed that the overall HIV prevalence at the national level was 27.5% (95% confidence interval (CI): 27.0 – 28.1) and represents a 2.5% point decline from the 2019 estimate.
The highest overall HIV prevalence was in KwaZulu-Natal (37.2%, 95% CI: 35.8 – 38.5), followed by Eastern Cape Province (32.9%, 95% CI: 31.5 – 34.2) and the lowest overall HIV prevalence was in Western Cape Province at 16.3% (95% CI: 15.0 – 17.6). According to the survey findings the overall HIV prevalence estimates were lower than the 2019 estimates in all nine provinces.
By district, the highest HIV prevalence was reported in uMkhanyakude District at 44.0% (95% CI: 37.6 – 50.6). HIV prevalence was higher than the national average in 27 districts.
The Public Health Bulletin South Africa (PHBSA) is a quarterly publication that provides information on surveillance activities that enable effective monitoring of rates and distribution of diseases, detection of outbreaks, monitoring of interventions, and predicting emerging hazards.
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