You may have noticed our Happy Endings posting yesterday on how South Africa's new Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (who took over following Jacob Zuma's corruption scandal-related ouster) has charted a new course on HIV/AIDS. Among Mlambo-Mgcuka's first orders of business was to finally acknowledge the link between HIV and AIDS.

While those efforts will no doubt lead to wider prevention and treatment programs, a new report suggests that gay youth in the Western Cape region have not heard the calls for more vigilant safe-sex practices. South Africa's Independent reports:

The focus on safe sex in the gay community in South Africa seems to be "dropping off", according to the executive director of health services for the City of Cape Town, Ivan Toms.

"Young, crazy people are starting to play young, crazy risk games," Toms said on Monday at the internationally attended founding meeting of the Africa Genome Education Institute's Biotechnology and Health Economics Working Group of South Africa.

Toms attributed this "scary change" of an increased taking of sexual risks - especially among younger men - to their thinking that Aids was a chronic disease that could be managed with medication.

New and improved medications have led to a similar trend in other nations, but the epidemic in South Africa may be one of the worst. According to the article:

...[P]eople living with HIV in SA in 2005 between 5,2 million and 5,5 million. The HIV prevalence rate among the adult population (15 to 49) was between 18 percent and 19 percent.

So, what are these risky sex practices? Well, many people only use condoms to "punish" their lovers.

We tend to think withholding sex entirely's a better method.