HIV in South African forensic medical practice

Abstract

HIV has become a focal point for South Africa and many other parts of the world. This is owing to the dire implications the disease holds for the human race. Accurate research needs to be done in order to determine the effectiveness of current prevention, treatment and funding strategies so that future strategies can be implemented with greater success. All organisations, whether governmental or non-governmental, need to be aligned in their strategies and campaigns in order to be maximally effective. In the South African forensic setting, it is not routine to test a decedent for their HIV status unless a needle stick injury or occupational mishap occurs. This means there is very little information on the current prevalence of HIV in the other than natural death population of South Africa. In order to address the lack of information three main areas of research have been identified as the most urgent to obtain reliable information on. The first was a study done to document the HIV prevalence in the general Pretoria MLL population for a month. All cases admitted to the Pretoria MLL were tested for their HIV status and this was documented and analysed. The second study population was the suicide population in the Pretoria MLL. It is hypothesised that the suicide populations HIV prevalence would be higher than the general population’s prevalence rate. The third study shed light on the sub population of Sudden Unexplained and Unexpected Deaths (SUU-Death) that are admitted to the Pretoria MLL. The results of all three studies determined that the prevalence of HIV in the Pretoria MLL is higher than the current statistics for South Africa. South African forensic medical practice has the context and potential to provide large amounts of accurate information regarding the HIV pandemic in South Africa.