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HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in South Africa are among the highest in the world. The key to reducing transmission is the dissemination of accurate knowledge. Here, we investigate the accuracy of HIV/AIDS knowledge among youth affected by the disease. Data from the Fourth South African National HIV, Behaviour and Health Survey (2012) are used and a weighted sample of 4 095 447 youth (15-24 years old) who have known or cared for someone with HIV/AIDS are analyzed. Results show that more than one-third (40.37%) of youth in South Africa are affected by the disease. One-quarter of the affected youth have 75% accurate knowledge of the virus, while only 10% have 100% accurate knowledge. Rural place of residence (odds ratio [OR] = 0.61) and looking for work (OR = 0.39) are less likely to have accurate knowledge. Youth without disabilities (OR = 2.46), in cohabiting (OR = 1.69), and in dating (OR = 1.70) relationships are more likely to have accurate knowledge. In conclusion, in order to reduce HIV incidence and combat HIV myths, efforts to improve the accuracy of HIV knowledge among youth affected by the disease are needed. There should be more community-based campaigns to target unemployed youth in the country.

Background: Stigma and discrimination remains a barrier to uptake of HIV/AIDS counselling and treatment as well as effective HIV reduction programmes. Despite ethnic diversity of Nigeria, studies on determinants of HIV stigma incorporating the ethnic dimension are very few. This paper provides empirical explanation of the ethnic dimension of determinant of HIV stigma and discrimination in Nigeria., Methods: Nationally representative data from Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey 2013 (Individual recode) was analysed to explore ethnic differentials and homogeneity in the determinants of HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination among women in multi-ethnic Nigeria., Results: Result shows that determinants of HIV stigma and discrimination varies by ethnicity in Nigeria. Significant ethnic differentials in HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination by Secondary school education exist among Hausa and Igbo respectively (OR = 0.79; CI: 1.49-2.28 and OR=1.62; CI: 1.18-2.23, p<0.05). Wealth status significantly influenced HIIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination among Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba ethnic groups (p<0.05). Knowledge of HIV/AIDS was significantly associated with lower odds of discriminating attitudes among the Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups (OR = 0.45; CI: 0.30-0.67 and OR=0.36; CI: 0.16-0.83, p<0.05)., Conclusions: Identifying ethnic differential and homogeneity in predictors of HIV/AIDS stigma is key to reducing HIV/AIDS prevalence in Nigeria and countries with similar settings.

South Africa has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world. It is estimated that 5.38 million South Africans are living with HIV/AIDS. In addition, new infections among adults aged 15+ were reportedly 316 900 in 2011. New infections among children (0-14 years old) was also high in 2011 at 63 600. This paper examines South Africa's mortality due to HIV/AIDS among the youth (15-34 years old). This age group is of fundamental importance to the economic and social development of the country. However, the challenges of youth development remain vast and incomparable. One of these challenges is the impact of HIV/AIDS on mortality. Life table techniques are used to estimate among others, sex differentials in death rates for the youth population, probability of dying from HIV/AIDS before the age of 35 and life expectancy should HIV/AIDS be eradicated from the population. The study used data from the National Registry of Deaths, as collated by Statistics South Africa from 2001 to 2009. Results show that youth mortality due to HIV/AIDS has remained consistently higher among older youths than in younger ones. By sex, mortality due to this cause has also remained consistent over the period, with mortality due to HIV/AIDS being higher among females than males. Cause-specific mortality rates and proportional mortality ratios reflect the increased mortality of older youth (especially 30-34 years old) and females within the South African population. Probability of dying from HIV/AIDS shows that over the period, fluctuations in likelihood of mortality have occurred, but for both males and females (of all age groups) the chances of dying from this cause decreased in 2007-2009.

Using data from the 2010 Survey of Activities of Young People (SAYP) this paper examines the relationship between parent absenteeism and adolescents' (10-17 years old) participation in the labour force in South Africa. Due to widespread poverty and the impact of HIV/AIDS, adolescents are forced to forego schooling to seek employment. As Stanton et al. (2004) posited, parent absenteeism affects adolescents' school completion rates and is associated with risky behaviour. This paper argues that parent absenteeism also forces adolescents to seek employment. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression are used. Results show that 1.58 adolescents per 1,000 adolescent population work 10 or more hours a week. Further, 38.7% of adolescents have at least one parent absent from the household. Almost 2% of adolescents who have at least one parent absent are not enrolled in school. Finally, adolescents are less likely to work more than 10 hours a week if a mother is absent from the household (0.34), yet more likely to work more than 10 hours if a father is absent (1.21). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abortion is legal in South Africa, but over half of abortions remain unsafe there. Evidence suggests women who are (Black) African, of lower socioeconomic status, living with HIV, or residents of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, or Limpopo provinces are disproportionately vulnerable to morbidity or mortality from unsafe abortion. Negative attitudes toward abortion have been documented in purposively sampled studies, yet it remains unclear what attitudes exist nationally or whether they differ across sociodemographic groups, with implications for inequities in service accessibility and health. In the current study, we analysed nationally representative data from 2013 to estimate the prevalence of negative abortion attitudes in South Africa and to identify racial, socioeconomic and geographic differences. More respondents felt abortion was ‘always wrong’ in the case of family poverty (75.4%) as compared to foetal anomaly (55%), and over half of respondents felt abortion was ‘always wrong’ in both cases (52.5%). Using binary logistic regression models, we found significantly higher odds of negative abortion attitudes among non-Xhosa African and Coloured respondents (compared to Xhosa respondents), those with primary education or less, and residents of Gauteng and Limpopo (compared to Western Cape). We contextualise and discuss these findings using a human rights-based approach to health. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]