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HIV risk exposure in young children : a study of 2-9 year olds served by public health facilities in the Free State, South Africa

SHISANA, Olive
MEHTAR, Shaheen
2005

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South Africa has, until now, focused its HIV prevention efforts on youth and adults, and now needs to expand its focus to include children. Much is already known about mother to child transmission, which is the dominant mode of HIV transmission among children. However, little investigation has been done into the potential for horizontal transmission of HIV on the population below reproductive age. This report focuses on children aged 2-9 years and, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, presents evidence on the potential for HIV transmission in dental, maternity and paediatric service in public health facilities. A new finding concerns the practice of shared breastfeeding

National household HIV prevalence and risk survey of South African children

BROOKS, Heather
SHISANA, Olive
RICHTER, Linda
2004

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This valuable new report looks at the levels of infection of HIV and AIDS, the levels of orphaning and child headed households, sexual debut and sexual experiences and risk factors and risk environments for children aged 2-14 in South Africa. This has been investigated as the HSRC recognizes that there is very little known about HIV prevalence rates among children or about the risk factors that predispose them to becoming infected. The study looks at the social and community risk factors that predispose children to HIV infection as well as the impact of the epidemic on children in terms of orphan status and child headed households. It examines children’s knowledge of HIV and AIDS prevention, their knowledge about sexual behaviour and HIV as well as their own patterns of sexual behaviour and changes in that behaviour. This study is interesting as it explicitly includes young children

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