18 Jun 2014

The war against HIV and AIDS is slowly, but surely being won judging from the latest survey.

The rate of new HIV infections has declined from 1.45 per cent during BAIS III in 2008 to 1.35 per cent in BAIS IV, which was conducted last year.

“This might sound like an insignificant drop in new infections, but any move towards zero is a move in the right direction,” said the acting Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Shaw Kgathi during the master dissemination of the results of BAIS IV on June 17.

Mr Kgathi said the focus must now be on how to further expedite reduction to move towards zero new infections by 2016.  The minister also said HIV prevalence was stabilising.

He noted that in BAIS III prevalence was estimated at 17.6 per cent while it was estimated at 18.5 per cent in BAIS IV. He attributed the increase in prevalence rates to the fact that people lived longer due to the provision of ARV drugs.

The director of socio-demographic statistics at Statistics Botswana, Mr Tapologo Baakile said prevalence rates by districts showed that Kgalagadi south had the lowest rate at 11.1 per cent while Selebi Phikwe had the highest rate at 27.5 per cent.

He noted that Kgalagadi south dropped from 19.1 per cent in BIAS III to 11.1 per cent in BAIS IV. He added that even the mortality data showed a drop in the number of deaths in the area.

He also noted that the prevalence rate in Sowa Town dropped from 25.4 per cent to 19.8 per cent. However, he said in Kgalagadi north it increased from 11.8 per cent to 18.1 per cent.

“Populations with little education had the highest HIV prevalence. HIV prevalence rose from 11.6 per cent for pre-primary, 16.5 per cent for primary and 22.2 per cent for secondary education groups,” said Mr Baakile.  He added that HIV prevalence declined steeply with increasing levels of education beyond secondary.

Mr Baakile also said 96.8 per cent of people aged 15-49 years showed positive attitudes towards people living with HIV. However, he said males showed higher discrimination levels compared to females. 

Mr Baakile said about three per cent of women aged 15-49 years had sex without their consent in the last 12 months. He noted that over 70 per cent of Batswana aged 10 to 64 years had tested for HIV at least once compared to 56 per cent in BAIS III.

He added that in the last 12 months preceding the survey, 63.7 per cent of the population aged 15-49 years had tested for HIV and were informed of the results. ENDS