Disabilities raise risk of HIV

A study of disabled people in South Africa surveyed their knowledge of and attitudes to HIV/AIDS. According to project manager Arne Henning Eide of SINTEF, the two most important infection risk factors are lack of knowledge about prevention and the risks of infection. Disabled people are less able to obtain an education, are often poor and receive little information about this disease.

This group of people also find it more difficult to get to the doctor and to health services than healthy people, and many of them are discriminated against in the health services. These findings have led the South African authorities to modify their national AIDS strategy. The project was financed by the South African National Research Foundation and the Research Council of Norway.