Your Moves - to be a player, or a life stayer: fighting HIV in universities

South African universities and technikons distribute 7 000 copies of an interactive cd-rom in January, 2004 to tertiary institutions to educate young people (the most HIV-infected group in southern Africa) of the choices they make that can influence their life and health. It's part of dramatic initiatives from tertiary institutions, including the provision of antiretroviral medication, to try and lower HIV infections in South Africa, the country with the world's highest rate of infection - more than 5 million people of a population of 41-million.

(PRWEB) January 6, 2004 --
CD Rom launched by Higher Education Aids Initiative to curb HIV infection in students and staff in tertiary institutions.

Your Moves" -- a CD-Rom that poses some of the complex life choices that face young people has been developed by Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme HEAIDS to be part of South Africas comprehensive higher education sector strategy on HIV and AIDS.

Seven thousand copies of the CD-Rom will be distributed to Universities and Technikons across the nation this month (January, 2004). It will be used in induction and initiation programmes for first year students, as a teaching aid, for skills development and in campus clinics for students and staff.

Controversial to some, it nonetheless shows the real choices South African students may face. It demonstrates that life is about choices. Its about self respect and behaving with consideration toward others.
But because these simple choices arent always made, the highest infection rates for HIV in southern Africa are among young people.

UNAIDS in its 2003 report notes that HIV infection in South Africa is highest in young people.
A girl aged 15 to 24 is 2,5 times more likely to be infected than her male counterparts.
South African Department of Health stats show the highest rates of infection are in girls aged 13 to 19, followed by boys aged 16 to 25.

There is already a cure for HIV, it requires no money, no clever scientists -- its called behaviour change.

Without behaviour change we risk AIDS mutation through resistance to drugs and unprotected sex.*
Without behaviour change we may render a future vaccine ineffective.

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases warns: Most exposure to HIV is through high risk behaviours... A vaccine that has shown efficacy in clinical trials -- in the absence of concurrent behavioural intervention -- could result in a vaccine whose effectiveness proves lower than its efficacy."

Inside each one of us we carry the cure for HIV/AIDS.

HEAIDS works to prevent, manage and eliminate HIV infection, and to promote care and support, learning and research in tertiary institutions.

Development of the CD-ROM involved input from experts and students in tertiary institutions. Using actors and situations students face the cd-Rom encourages the user to make a choice -- which in turn displays a screen showing the likely consequences of such a choice. At the end a risk assessment is given based on the choices the student or staff member made.

Why is this necessary?

In late 2000, research into AIDS at the University of Western Cape by Professor Theresa Barnes of the Education Policy unit at UWC noted:
         Silence persists, especially in the student population, despite a HIV/AIDS information and awareness program, run from the Campus Health Services (CHS). Silence persists, too, in worrying levels of gender violence, and unsafe cultures of intimacy amongst students....
If members of the UWC community share their expertise, resources and experiences ... with an energetic commitment from the top to a comprehensive campaign, it should be possible to develop a powerful, integrated university-wide contribution to combating the epidemic."

Armed with this awareness and a passionate commitment to the students in tertiary institutions across South Africa, and the staff that work with them and among them, the South African University Vice Chancellors Association (SAUVCA) with the Committee of Technikon Principals (CTP) and the Department of Education (DoE) created Higher Education HIV/AIDS (HEAIDS) in 2001 to prevent, manage, and mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS in tertiary education.

HEAIDS helps build institutional capacity to measure HIV/AIDS; to create high quality HIV/AIDS policies that protect the rights of staff and students; and an enabling environment for more effective service delivery and implementation.

It focuses on:
•   Effective leadership, advocacy and management
•   Voluntary Counselling and Testing
•   The prevention and treatment of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) including HIV
•   Peer education
•   Integration of HIV/AIDS into the academic curriculum
•   Care and support
•   Community outreach
•   Research and workplace projects

Condom distribution is tracked as a proxy measure of changes in sexual practices.

As an example, in 1996, UWC (which is believed to have low HIV prevalence in line with the province it is situated in) distributed 20 000 condoms in the first quarter of that year. There were less than a million HIV infected South Africans in 1996.

By 2000, the university which had 5 000 fewer students than four years previously distributed 150 000 condoms in the first quarter. Higher condom usage reflects increased student concern about HIV infection, and that more are practising safer sex (Barnes reported that although significant number of students abstain, religious belief plays a stronger role than protection from HIV).
In 1988 there were 157 HIV infected people in South Africa, within 12 years -by 2000, HIV/AIDS infection in South Africa was 4,2m persons according to UNAIDS.

In 2003, UNAIDS says there are more than 5m HIV infected people living in South Africa.

Some universities have antiretroviral programmes for staff and students.

Barbara Michel, programme manager for HEAIDS notes: There is a lot of depression about high HIV infection rates in South Africa. However, there is also remarkable work being done to curtail and manage the virus. HEAIDS is investing incredible energy into its work. We are proud of the significant support university administrators, staff and students are putting toward efforts to manage and curb HIV/AIDS."

Michel comments: We dont have all the answers but we have the will to succeed. South Africans are gifted at coming up with cutting edge solutions and we believe we will display that in our efforts to safeguard our future. Your Moves is one such innovation."

(*     A paper delivered to the Durban AIDS conference on behalf of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Durban found that scientists were detecting increasing numbers of people infected with more than one strain of the virus, posing challenges for treatment. (Sapa, 6/8/2003))

Website: www.heaids.ac.za
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