> Shoe-thrower tortured?

> Bludgeoning cops blamed

> Seli 1 being drained

> Home Affairs 'corrupt'

> Recession taxes Sars

> Sumbandila-Sat gets ready

> 'Make calls cheaper'

> 'R5s don't take photos'

> Shoppers, guards ambushed

> Cops to hire pros?

Today, 25 November 2009

› Animal group 'ignorant'

› Top ANC official hijacked

› Minister to 'repay' state

› Govt's R1bn SABC bailout

› Malema's lawyer speaks up

Yesterday, 24 November 2009

› McBride: I'm being bugged

› Batting for Hersch

› Els gets thumbs down

› Maroga's salary summary

› Top ANC official hijacked

As we commemorate World Aids Day on 1 December 2007, it's the perfect time to take stock of where we are in relation to HIV, and think about how we can respond to this ever growing epidemic.

To update you, the HIV and Aids landscape in 2007 in South Africa looks something like this:

• Recent statistics confirm that South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV in the world.
• HIV and Aids has been with us for more than 25 years.
• It is estimated that two million South Africans don't know that they are HIV-positive.
• Eighteen percent of all South Africans aged 15-49 are HIV positive.
• More than five million people in South Africa are currently living with HIV.

You may be thinking — "but who are these five million people these statistics refer to?"

Only 'other' people get it

In 2007, many of us have continued to live our lives not seeing the risk HIV poses to us. We have not changed our own behaviour to protect ourselves and others.

This is all despite the large amount of information we know about HIV. Sadly, it is part of our human nature to deny that we may be at risk of getting HIV, because we have created a social stigma and we think that 'other' people get 'it'.

To understand how HIV works in simple terms, let's think about the concept of social networking.

Facebook is a very popular social networking website, and it has had a remarkable and significant impact on South Africans with access to the internet. It has provided an opportunity for users to realise that we are all connected in so many ways.

We have found friends through social connections such as school, college, university, work, and family. Even though we may not see this 'friend' anymore, we still have had a relationship of some sort with them that goes back to some point in our life.

Linked in a different way

HIV is a reflection of a social network of a different kind. To use Facebook language, the term 'we hooked up', is essentially how HIV is most often spread in South Africa. So, HIV is a social network of people who have hooked up. Quite a thought!

The challenge for HIV is that the network of people becoming newly infected needs to be broken.

This can only happen if each one of us acknowledge our personal risk and make a choice about how to minimise this risk — for some this may mean 'being faithful' to one another, for others this could mean the 'correct and consistent use of condoms', and others may choose to abstain.

Whatever you choose, remember that you do have choices to make before you consider 'hooking up'. Remember that HIV is a virus — it does not discriminate, it knows no boundaries — no colour, no religion, no class.

Ignorance is not bliss

If by now you are still thinking you are safe because you think, "I don't 'hook up' with people who are HIV-positive", and "if someone was HIV-positive they would not be having unprotected sex and knowingly passing it onto someone else", consider the fact that almost 40 percent of people with HIV in South Africa don't know their HIV status.

Perhaps in 2008 we need to start with a resolution that we will take the time to scratch below the surface of our own communities to try and see the effect HIV is having.

Finally, in keeping with the EACH ONE REACH FIVE CAMPAIGN, I urge you to go and be tested for HIV and encourage five others to do the same. Ask each of those five to get another five to do the same. Let's create a social network of people that know their HIV status.