In November 2007, a national survey was commissioned by Higher Education South Africa to establish the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and practices (KABP) related to HIV and AIDS and to measure the HIV prevalence among staff and students at South Africa's higher education institutions.
A total of 512 students, 98 academic staff, 117 administrative staff and 177 service staff participated in the Rhodes study. Of these participants the overall prevalence of HIV among students and staff at Rhodes is 1.5%. HIV prevalence among students is 0.2% while no academic staff was found to be HIV-positive in the sample. The prevalence of HIV among administrative and service staff is higher at 6.7% and 12.9% respectively.
The Dean of Students Office along with the Student HIV/AIDS Resistance Campaign (SHARC) will be facilitating talks in the dining halls throughout next week (19th to the 23rd of April) in response to the HEAIDS Sero-Prevalence Study at Rhodes. The talks will provide feedback on HIV prevalence at Rhodes and the risk behaviours of students. More importantly, the talks aim to discuss the implications of these statistics for our intervention programmes and levels of stigma at Rhodes. Students will be able to ask questions about the study and together we can start to conceptualize a way forward for the student response to HIV/AIDS.
The time and dates for the talks are:
- Monday 19th April 18:00 Nelson Mandela, Kimberley Hall East, and Kimberley Hall West
- Tuesday 20th April 18.00 Cortenay Latimer, Hobson, Drosdty
- Wednesday 21st April 18.00 Jan Smuts, Founders
For more information contact Beth Vale at beth.nosizwe.vale@gmail.com