Year: 2005
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: A negative population growth rate is a feared ultimate effect of pandemics.The spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has reached pandemic proportions, globally.In the South African context, HIV is under-studied at the magisterial district level and consequently underestimated and probably misunderstood at all other levels.Certainly, no study has been undertaken in South Africa to establish empirically the spatial distribution and spread of HIV/AIDS in a major city.Research is also compromised because data on the pandemic from state and municipal institutions are not readily available for dissemination and analysis.In this particular study, research results from different authorities regarding prevalence rates were frequently contradictory.The pandemic also raises many challenges to local governments: how to contain the spread of HIV and at the same time effect service delivery of health resources.The newly created "megacities" or metropoles have been given the responsibility of bringing better quality services and more accountable local government to all South Africans.One such "megacity" is the Nelson Mandela Metropole in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, which comprises the city of Port Elizabeth, the Despatch and Uitenhage areas, and their rural surrounds.The study seeks to establish: i) the local prevalence rate of HIV; ii) the proximal vectors that impinge on the spread; and iii) the effects that the epidemic has and might have on the demographic profile of the Metropole.The study also introduces innovative research techniques, which may impact on policies containing the spread of HIV and contribute to a new understanding of the epidemiology of the HIV pandemic.The use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) should provide epidemiological insights into spatially referenced relationships between the sources of diseases and the movement of contagions.The study is an approach based on anonymised case-level data (N=27505), which was obtained from the Nelson Mandela AIDS, Training, Information, Counselling Centre (ATICC).The perception today is that public health measures are ineffective in containing the spread of HIV.The study hopes to illuminate the focal points of the HIV prevalence in the Nelson Mandela Metropole, and pinpoint the vectors that impinge on the spread, so that improved public health intervention may be facilitated.
Author: Parbavati Rama
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2346062177