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Make A Difference with Bea
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the increase in this country. This is a fact that can no longer be wished away. The National AIDS Council (NAC) last week released figures for cases recorded in Harare alone in the first six months of the year and they were not amusing. These high figures; coming soon after NAC also released similarly high and depressing numbers for STIs in other parts of the country, again in this very same year, shows that something is every wrong somewhere.
Considering the strides that this country has made over the years, managing to reduce not only new HIV infections (incidence) but prevalence as well as AIDS related deaths; it becomes a bit worrisome when you see the country sliding backwards as is happening currently.
What is happening with us as a people? High HIV knowledge levels and the reality of seeing family members, close friends, workmates and neighbours dying as if they were just flies in the early 2 000s led to behaviour change in many people.
Gone were the behaviours of the past such as picking up casual partners and having several partners all at the same time.
Being school children, we would tell each other how we would go to the grave as virgins because it just was not worth it. Those images of HIV in the past were enough to do that to a person.
Deep down I wanted to. Who would not want to go and see their older sibling that spoiled them as they grew up, buying clothes and everything else a growing girl could have wanted?
But then what I would see at the hospital was far from the sibling I knew as I grew up.
This is what HIV was known for back then. I was afraid. I was not alone. My young brother was too, until he vowed not to marry. Today he is married however. The fear left him and he became more practical but he vowed that they needed to know their HIV status first. Good for them.
Many more were afraid too. But it seems we are no longer afraid. The high STI incidence shows that many of us are sleeping around. We are involved in sexual networks where there are more than two parties involved. But even as we engage in these sexual networks, what this also shows is that we are not correctly and consistently using condoms.
Even when it is blatantly clear that there are three or four of you, we are not using condoms. This can only mean one thing. We are no longer afraid. Or we have become very complacent. Or we are mad.
There are some who go around today saying “AIDS no longer kills.” Some say they would rather have HIV than cancer. The availability of antiretroviral medicines that prolong the life of people and living with HIV and improve their health by suppressing the replication of the virus while boosting the immune system in Zimbabwe was certainly long overdue.
Too many had died by the time ART became available. It is so exciting today that people do not have to die anymore and HIV has become a manageable condition just like your diabetes and asthma.
But let us never lie to each other that it is easy to live with HIV. Just speak to your family and friends who have to pop a pill daily and cope with other challenges such as stigma that come with it.
If one is infected already, then it does make sense that the ARVs would be a bonus and welcome thing but for someone who is uninfected to be careless with their health like that is crazy.
Why are people being so careless, though? I asked around and hear that in many cases young women are willing to sleep with older, married men with money just to get rentals paid for, food, cars and other things.
Some of these men are usually infected and hence are willing to pay big money to get unprotected sex. Does that make sense? I would think someone who knows they have HIV would want to live long and healthy and avoid re-infection thus they would use condoms and stay faithful.
I also hear that long-term relationships have become the hot bed of HIV and STI infections because of the trust factor. Young couples told me that while condoms can be used in the first months of dating, they hardly go beyond the first four months. Thus people who have been together for years do not use condoms. This is why married couples are now at the highest risk of HIV infection. In the event that there is a long-term affair running parallel to the marriage, the risks become worse as condoms are not used while there is no guarantee that the third party will be faithful.
For who can be content to hang around while some married man goes to their family and only spends time with them when they get away? These are the kind of questions people need to ask themselves or we will see our HIV epidemic do a Uganda on us where they recorded positive gains only to see the epidemic spiking again. If you are a man who has another woman on the side; what makes you so certain that they will be content to wait for the crumbs that fall off your main table? Half the time they cannot and it is normal because inherently everyone wants to be first. That is when problems begin. With a neglected wife also finding her own pleasure on the side, we can just imagine the effects.
Callers to a show on Star FM where we sought to discuss this worrying topic said today’s generation has become greedy and selfish and people are not afraid. A caller fingered doctors and nurses, who should know better, as some of those who sleep around the most. Of course these things are not driven by professions as many more people do this, irrespective of who they are. Others spoke of parents who drive daughters into selling sex because they want things.
Others spoke of parents who no longer take time to find out what is happening with their children as the problem. Others blame the economic situation while some say it is moral decadence. Government has since expressed concern over this issue and said it would roll out awareness campaigns. Is it that we do not know? Let us wake up and smell the coffee Zimbabwe.
Therein will lie the difference.
Online Reporter