"Doug Houge" <d_houge@charter.net> wrote in message

       JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's AIDS epidemic, often regarded by health workers
as a disease of the poor, is in fact spreading quickly among the country's richest and best
educated people, researchers said on Tuesday.

       The study by the Markinor polling firm and the University of South Africa (UNISA)
showed a rapid increase in HIV infections in professional people and those with full-time
employment -- both key to South Africa's hopes to spur economic development.

       "The high risk group is growing, it is getting older and it is getting richer," said
Carel van Aardt, director of UNISA's Bureau of Market Research. "This could represent a whole
new wave of the epidemic."

       The study challenges widespread assumptions about South Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis, which
is often described as a disease of the rural poor who lack access to information, treatment and
basic health services.

       South Africa now has some 5.5 million HIV-positive people out of a total population of
some 45 million, giving it an estimated overall prevalence rate of about 11 percent and one of
the worst AIDS caseloads in the world.

       The new study examined some 3,500 South Africans between the years of 2002-2005, a poll
engineered to reflect the country's racial and economic demographics.

       Overall, the study identified young people below the age of 30 as being at greatest
risk for HIV, as most previous research has done. But it also found infections rising at
alarming rates in the rich and better educated -- groups not previously singled out as being at
risk.

       "We are on the eve of a very scary reality unless we start making some changes," said
Tracy Hammond, Markinor's project manager for the study.

       Researchers said there were many possible factors behind the spread of HIV among upper
levels of society, among them confused government messages about HIV/AIDS, greater disposable
income and leisure, and general apathy about safe sex practices.

       But whatever the reason, AIDS is certainly climbing the social ladder for both black
and white South Africans.

       Among South Africa's professionals, for instance, the study found a 34 percent jump in
estimated HIV prevalence, rising to 8.3 percent in 2004 from 6.2 percent in 2002.

       People with full-time jobs -- who in South Africa account for only about half the
working population -- saw estimated HIV-prevalence rise to 19.2 percent in 2005 from 14.4.
percent in 2002, an increase of 36 percent.

       Unemployed people, while seeing a bigger percentage jump in HIV prevalence, remained
lower in terms of actual prevalence rates with just 18.4 percent estimated infected in 2005
compared with 11 percent in 2002.

       In a further piece of alarming news, the study said HIV infection was growing most
quickly in those aged between 30-34, threatening people just as their careers take off.

       Overall, the richest third of South Africa's population still has a lower estimated
HIV-prevalence than the poorest third, at 8.5 percent compared to 23.4 percent.

       But the study said new infections were increasing most rapidly in this demographic,
rising by 39 percent between 2002-2005 against only a 14 percent increase for their poorest
compatriots.

       "This time it is not the employees, it is the employers. It is not the people without
bank accounts, it is the people who make investments," Markinor's Hammond said. "If we thought
the AIDS epidemic was having bad economic effects already, this could take us to the crisis
point."

       http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070130/wl_nm/aids_safrica_dc_1

Doug sez:

At least on this point I couldn't agree with you more.  The problem now
though is that AIDS  isn't spreading as fast as the past in the "usual goups
of people." Something pouned into people's heads for years, the groups it is
hitting hardest, minorities;seniors;and kids that are too young to be having
sex anyway  I don't mean to portay myself as a fascist about this but kids
shouldn't have sex until they can handle the consequences that come with it.
That starts at home.  Anyway, these groups don't know, don't care , and
DON'T understand that they are as susceptible to AIDS as anyone and they are
not getting tested so no one knows what the real monetary cost will pan out
to be.  I think it's frightening.  The "'I'm gonna live forever attitude."
Mean while they're killing and putting their kill on a charge that future
generations are going to have to pay for big time.

/doug