A change in approach to sex would denote wider use of condoms and greater knowledge of the dangers of unprotected intercourse. However, Ntsaluba said the infection rate among people in the 25-35 age bracket continued to rise. Reluctance to practice safe sex has been a major factor in the AIDS epidemic that has spread through South Africa and plagued huge swathes of sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly half of the South African population is under 20 years old and, despite an official ban on sex before 16, the average age to start sex is 12, compared to an international average of 17. Condom use has traditionally been low.
Teenage girls are most vulnerable to the disease, some contracting the deadly virus from older men.
Rape of young women has reached high levels, partly because of a misplaced belief that AIDS can be cured by sex with a virgin. More than 60 percent of all new HIV infections occur in those between 15 and 25 with women generally infected earlier than men, according to Love Life estimates. The national antenatal survey of women is the most authoritative official measure of the extent of HIV-AIDS in the country. It has estimated the national HIV prevalence rate at just over 22 percent of adults, compared to a rate of approximately 0.6 percent in the United States. But the good news on the teenage front could be countered by continued growth rates among people in their twenties and thirties.