02 Apr 2014

HIV and AIDS continue to be a challenge in Boteti and the office of the District AIDS Coordinator (DAC) and its implementing partners have come up with interventions to combat the scourge.

The district AIDS coordinator, Mr Ketlaantshang Monyadiwa has revealed to BOPA that Boteti DMSAC planning committee recently completed the evidence based planning process for the financial year 2014/2015.

Mr Monyadiwa said the process involved forming a planning working group consisting of representatives from DMSAC, Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), traditional leaders, people living with disabilities and AIDS organisations.

He said after the review of the HIV/AIDS profile in Boteti, the committee resolved to focus on key issues identified as of serious concern with a proposed budget of P 387 000.

Mr Monyadiwa said key issues identified by DAC and its implementing partners include among others, the low rate of HIV testing, high teenage pregnancy, high rate of mother to child transmission of HIV, high rate of sexually transmitted infections and high HIV incident rate.

Mr Monyadiwa decried the high rate of teenage pregnancy for the age group category of 15 to 19 years.

He said evidence collected from the Sub district has revealed that teenage pregnancy remains a challenge as most of these victims are still students at junior and senior schools.

The district health management team has recorded 320 cases of teenage pregnancy, accounting to 14 per cent of all pregnancies recorded under the financial year 2012/2013.

He said under the proposed plan, the intention is to reduce teenage pregnancy rate from 14 per cent to 10 per cent by March 2015 with a proposed budget of P69 000. Mr Monyadiwa said proposed projects aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy include among others, students’ conversation meetings, parent-child communication forum and a district health fair.

The district AIDS coordinator said there are suspicions that some of the children are exposed to the risk of engaging in sexual activities at a young age as they stay alone, indicating that they will be safe staying in a boarding facility.

He said staying alone offers young girls an opportunity to engage in unruly behavior and thus being at risk of getting pregnant and even contracting STIs as they get tempted by men luring them with money in exchange of sexual favors.

As for HIV testing, the report from DHMT office has revealed that under the 2012/2013 financial year, 10 214 people tested for HIV, making it 16 per cent of the total population of people falling within the age category of 15-49 in Boteti.

The proposed plan of the committee is to encourage HIV testing by engaging the community to include among others theatre performances, conducting a needs assessment survey on factors contributing to low testing rates in Boteti and mobile testing for people in remote areas.

The district is also highly concerned with mother to child transmission. Mr Monyadiwa said the plan is to reduce the rate of transmission from five per cent to just one per cent by March 2015. During the financial year 2012/2013, the sub district reported that of the 220 infants tested for HIV, three of them tested positive.

Mr Monyadiwa said even though the community is being engaged through different health forums, it is unfortunate that people are dragging their feet when it comes to testing for HIV and even indulge in risky sexual behavior like unprotected sexual engagements which will ultimately contribute to new HIV infections, teenage pregnancies and increased cases of STIs.

He also said it is unfortunate to see those on ARV therapy and any other medication defaulting on treatment. ENDS