At least 28 per cent of South African schoolgirls are HIV postive compared to
only 4 per cent of boys, it has been revealed. The country's health minister
Aaron
Motsoaledi claimed the statistic 'destroyed his soul' and said action
needed to
be taken against the 'sugar daddies' targeting young girls.
Statistics
show 94,000 schoolgirls fell pregnant across the country in 2011 with 77,000
having abortions at public facilities. According to Mr Motsoaledi many of
the
pregnant girls - who were aged between 10 and 14 - tested positive for
HIV.
Speaking
at the National Council of Provinces Carolina, Mpumalanga, yesterday [Mar.
13]
said:
It is clear that it is not young
boys who are sleeping with these girls. It is old men. We must take a
stand against sugar daddies because they are destroying our children
Out of the country's 52 districts, Mr Motsoaledi said the Gert Sibande district
in Mpumalanga had the highest number of HIV-positive people and he said all the
men living there should be circumcised to stop the spread of the disease.
He added: 'There is
also a high number of TB infections ... there is a lot of death and a lot of
illness here.
An earlier study found that in KwaZulu-Natal province 37 per cent of pregnant
women were found to be carrying the virus.
Last year an investigation in South Africa's rural Eastern Cape revealed how
girls
as young as 12 were being forced to 'marry' older HIV-positive men because
of
the myth that having sex with a virgin will cure them of the disease.
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