LONDON (AlertNet) - Farm workers in South Africa have the highest HIV prevalence among any working population in southern Africa, a report by the International Organisation of Migration says.
The researchers surveyed 2,810 labourers across 23 farms in the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces between March and May this year.
They found that 39.5 percent of the workers were HIV-positive - more than twice the national prevalence rate of 17.8 percent for South Africa.
Southern Africa is a region with the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world.
According to the latest figures from UNAIDS, Swaziland has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate with 25.9 percent of the adult population infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Botswana is next with a HIV prevalence rate of 23.6 percent, followed by Lesotho at 23.6 percent and then South Africa.
"This study has reported an extraordinarily high prevalence of HIV among farm workers on commercial farms. I am not aware of any published literature in southern Africa that has reported a higher prevalence than this," Dr Mark Colvin, who led the survey, said in a statement.
Workers aged between 30 and 39 were the worst-hit, with more than half infected with HIV, the survey showed.
The study was unable to pinpoint a single reason behind the high rate of HIV infection on these farms, but cited a combination of factors such as irregular condom use and high levels of sexual violence.
Of "great concern" was the fact that 12.8 percent of men and 14.4 percent of women tested had been forced to have sex against their will in the past year, the report said.
It also noted that one in 10 workers had had sex in exchange for money or gifts. A similar proportion of employees had traded sex for benefits including accommodation, a job and transport.
"The data shows that farm workers are less likely to use a condom, more likely to have multiple partners in the last year and more likely to have reported symptoms of STIs (sexually transmitted infections) in the last year," the report said.
Large numbers of commercial farm workers were migrants from neighbouring countries in search of a living.
The report found that the HIV prevalence among farm workers was double the national average of their home countries, and in the case of Mozambique, triple the rate. Mozambicans in the survey showed a 41.5 percent infection rate compared with a national prevalence rate of 13 percent.
It would be easy to blame a lack of awareness of HIV on the high prevalence rate, but the findings of the study don't support that.
More than 70 percent of the employees surveyed had attended a meeting about HIV/AIDS on a farm and slightly more received some kind of HIV/AIDS pamphlets. And almost 90 percent of workers said they had accessed condoms on the farms.
Yet some misperceptions remain.
"Most employees know the basics about the transmission of HIV but it is of concern that just over a quarter believe the myth that HIV can be transmitted by mosquitoes," the report said.
"Worryingly, only half know that there are medications that can be taken by rape survivors to prevent HIV infection."
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