Fear battles fatalism in Africa’s AIDS fight

Messages from years of AIDS campaigns are finally filtering down to the dingy streets of Johannesburg where sex workers turn tricks.

But all of that can vanish in an instant when a customer offers a little more cash to have sex without a condom.

At least 5.6 million of South Africa’s 50 million people are infected with the AIDS virus, but new studies show that here and elsewhere on the continent fear of the disease and knowledge about how to prevent it have begun to change sexual habits, and in some places dramatically reduce infection rates.

“If you don’t take care of yourself, you’re risking yourself. If I get an infection, it will be my fault,” said a sex worker who gave her name as Sarah.

Still, with around 14 million people receiving government assistance and a quarter of the workforce unemployed, there will be others who take the money — and the risk.

“There are some ladies who are forced to do it without a condom. If the client puts a certain amount on the table, some of them can’t refuse it,” said sex worker Dudzai.

East and Southern Africa are the areas most heavily affected by the HIV epidemic. Out of the total number of people worldwide in 2009 living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, 34 percent were in 10 countries of Southern Africa, according to the U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS

By Jon Herskovitz and Kate Kelland

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters)