HIV Infection Rate in South Africa’s Colleges Jeopardizes Country’s Future, Op-Ed Says

"South Africans inspired the world by their peaceful overthrow of apartheid. Outsiders played a role in that success. Without an even greater national and international commitment against AIDS, the fragile hope of a new era of peace and prosperity will be quickly dashed," John Stremlau, head of Witwatersrand's international relations department, and Nthabisen Nkosi, a graduate student in the department, write in a Boston Globe op-ed. The authors write that they are "appalled and frustrated" by statistics that show 26% of South African college women and 12% of college men between the ages of 20 to 24 are infected with HIV. These numbers, from the nation's only survey of HIV prevalence among college students, conducted last year at the University of Durban-Westville, are "consistent" with figures reported by UNAIDS last month that estimate a quarter of South African women in their 20s carry the virus. Stremlau and Nkosi indicate that they are "appalled because HIV is preventable" and "frustrated because students emerging from universities are among the first to be educated after apartheid's demise ... South Africa needs their skills and growing tolerance." According to the authors, "Few" professors "can bear to admit" that many of their students are infected and are asked to offer counse