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There are drugs that can prevent HIV in rape victims – radio package

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An afternoon stroll with friends went horribly wrong for this 45-year-old woman when she was raped for the third time in June this year. Her alleged rapist held her at gunpoint while he raped her. To protect her identity her voice is not being used. But she says while he was raping her he kept saying: “I want to give you AIDS. I’ve got AIDS.” Kathleen Dey, Director of the Rape Crisis Trust in Cape Town, says the link between HIV and violence against women is a common phenomenon. “Alot of rapists carry other sexually transmitted diseases, which allow for sores and open wounds, which then also adds to the trauma and the easy transmission of the virus. Quite often there’s more than one rapist involved, and where there are multiple perpetrators, there are multiple injuries.” Post-Exposure Prophylaxis, PEP, a combination of anti-retroviral medications, can be used to prevent transmission of HIV. But to get the treatment, rape victims MUST undergo an HIV test to determine if they are already infected. If they are not, then they are treated with PEP for 28 days. Many South Africans who are raped don’t know there are drugs that can prevent HIV. Dr Kevin Rebefrom Anova says for the medication to be effective it must be taken within 72 hours after the rape. “The earlier the better. Within the first 24 hours, it’s probably even better than allowing for a 72-hour timeframe. It’s absolutely indicated that if somebody has been raped, there’s a very high background rate of HIV. So, there’s a really real chance that the perpetrator may have been HIV-positive.”Kelley Moult from the Gender Health and Justice Research Unit says in some instances rape victims aren’t told about the availability of such treatments because other people have abused the medications. Experts warn that the treatment is not without risk. If a woman subsequently became infected with HIV and needed to be treated with similar medications, resistance might develop and treatment would not be effective. Dr Oscar Radebe says the availability of the treatment may also depend on the health facility or the professional the patient is seen by. As a result of fear and stigma, men, women and children are reluctant to report cases of rape because of their lack of faith in the criminal justice system. The Sexual Offences Act can compel an alleged rapist to undergo a HIV test. But police officers say very few complainants ask for the information, even when the perpetrator has been caught. They don’t know that they can. They’re usually too traumatized to ask.

– By Euline Fillis

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