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Background

South Africa is one of the most economically developed countries in Africa and in 2001 had a GDP of US$113 274-million (DBSA, 2003). Yet it has one of the most unequal distributions of income in the world, a situation which has a dramatic impact on the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.

While compared to many other Africa countries, South Africa has a well develop health services sector - with widespread access to public and private health facilities, there remains much room for improvement at the level of service delivery.

Since 1994, the government has come under pressure from various sectors to improve the health infrastructure and capacity, and these inadequacies are partly responsible for the delay in the current plans for the government's anti-retroviral (ARV) roll-out programme - geared to be the most comprehensive programme in the world.

According to the recent Nelson Mandela/HSRC Study of HIV/AIDS (Household Survey 2002) - which measured the prevalence rate of the general population, rather than the rate of HIV positive mothers in antenatal clinics - 11.4% of South Africans are HIV/AIDS positive. 15.2% are positive within the 15-49 age group (NM/HSRC, 2002).

Both the mass media and non-profit communication programmes have dealt with the pandemic variously in the country - and their impact on increased awareness, understanding, and behavioural change has met with mixed results.