Is the story about child rape in South Africa, due to a myth about curing AIDS, an urban myth itself?

Over several years, I've heard that there is a belief amongst uneducated South Africans with HIV that sex with a virgin will cure AIDS, and hence there has been a virtual epidemic of child rape, and subsequent HIV infection. Is this proven, and if so, in how many documented cases; or is it simply an urban myth?

I am afraid to say this awful thing DOES happen in south Africa. I saw a TV documentary about it, And it was one of the saddest thinks I have ever seen in my whole life.

Oh come on!!! How can there any truth to this in the first place? I've heard the same. Nothing but child molesters trying to justify their depravity. So yea, it'a "urban" myth.

Not a myth, it is an epidemic.

Unfortunately this is a reality in South Africa and has been for the last few years. In some of the rural and uneducated cultures in SA there is a strong belief that sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure them of HIV infection and that the younger the individual the more potent the cure. This is a sad state of affairs and has lead to countless rapings of children as young as 5 months old I read in one account. It is not a myth by any stretch of the imagination and I think there are too many cases to have been accurately documented. I will say that I dont think that these reasons are behind EVERY rape case because there are still poediphiles put there. I pray that there is something that can be done but education just doesnt seem to have the effect anticipated on such deep seeded and twisted beliefs.

Its not a myth, it is a sad example of the depravity of men. We are so fortunate to live where we do and have the health that we do. Why did you want to know about this