Highlighting HIV and cancer in commemoration of World AIDS Day

10.12.2019 – Results from a collaborative research between the ISPM and the South African National Cancer Registry has resulted in a nationwide campaign on HIV and cancer in South Africa.

The research article titled; «The burden of cancers associated with HIV in the South African public health sector, 2004-2014; a record linkage study» has been used as the central information source for the campaign. The results from the study highlighted that people living with HIV were at a higher risk of Kaposi sarcoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cervical cancer, conjunctival cancer, other anogenital cancers and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. South Africa has a high burden of HIV with approximately 7.1 million people currently living with HIV. This is a large proportion of the population with a unique pattern of cancers. The main objective of the HIV and cancer campaign is to communicate to people living with HIV the additional cancer risk that they have and the signs and symptoms associated with these cancers.

This is a great example of how research can be translated to action that can impact the health outcomes of the people under study, in this case people living with HIV.