South Africans have modified sexual behaviour in the face of the HIV/AIDs epidemic the Nelson Mandela/Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) study of HIV/AIDS has found.

The survey found that the average age at which young South Africans became sexually active is 16. Researchers also found that a large majority of respondents who were sexually active had only one partner and about 40 percent had either not had sex before or had abstained during the past 12 months.

This is similar to trends in Uganda where the country managed to reverse the steep upward curve of the epidemic by encouraging people to be faithful or abstain.

The average age of sexual debut among South Africans of both sexes over 25 is 18 years but this drops significantly among younger age groups. The average age of sexual debut among those respondents who are currently aged between 25-34 was 17 and for 35-44 year olds it was 18 years. Among sexually active 15-24 year olds the average age was 16 years.

The good news is that very low levels of sexual activity were reported among children in the 12-14 year age group and relatively low levels (25%) among 15-17 year old youth.

This finding differs from that of other studies. For example, 31% of 12-17 year old youth were reported to be sexually active in a 2001 loveLife survey, while 13% of 12-14 year olds and 42% of 15-17 year olds were reported to be sexually active in a 2002 loveLife study.

The HSRC report attributed the low levels of sexual activity among 12-14 year olds to life skills and communication interventions that encouraged abstinence.

Given the fact that only one in four 15-17 year olds reported sexual activity ‘€“ life skills and communication campaigns should be conducted to delay sexual debut as well as encourage condom use for those who are sexually active, the report said.

Sexual experience among 15-24 year olds was significantly higher in informal urban areas.

A promising finding was that partner turnover among youth and adults did not appear to be high, with 84,7% of youth and 93,5% of adults reporting that they had only one partner in the past year.

“We found that the number of women who had no current sexual partner had increased and condom use has increased significantly,” said Dr Olive Shisana, principal investigator for the HSRC study.

“For example for women aged 15-49, condom use at last sexual intercourse has more than tripled, from 8% in 1998 to 28,6% in the present study, and among women aged 20-24 it has increased from 14,4% to 47%.”

The study estimated the overall HIV prevalence in the South African population (over the age of two) to be 11,4% a figure much lower than the original estimate of 19 %.

HIV prevalence among those aged 15-49 was 15,6%.

Children under the age of two were excluded as the saliva-based HIV test used in the study could falsely record them as HIV positive if their mothers were HIV positive, as their mothers’€™ antibodies are still present in their bodies at that age.