07 June 2012

HIV and AIDS in the South African Police Service on the rise

According to materials released by the South African Police Service (SAPS), the rate of HIV and AIDS is set to rise from 3 in 10 to 1 in 7 members of the service infected by the year 2015.

AIDS will have maximum impact on infected and affected families of police officers and this might negatively affect the work performance of all these employees. Projections of HIV and AIDS impact on POLMED over the period 2000 to 2015 indicated that the expected overall percentage of POLMED principal members infected with HIV will increase from 8% in 2000 to 14% by 2015.

In 2000 the HIV prevalence was the highest in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, the North West and the Eastern Cape. The records also indicate that these provinces are likely to remain the worst affected.

However, this is not all gloom and doom. The SAPS is equally committed to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS extensively and vigorously, hence the 2007 - 2011 Strategic Plan. The SAPS Five Year Strategic Plan is aimed at synchronizing goals and objectives through a number of programmes such as Awareness Campaigns, Voluntary Counselling and Testing and or Surveillance Testing, Peer Education, Support Groups.