06 Oct 2014

Research has shown that there is low condom use in the country, says an official from the Ministry of Health in the department of HIV prevention and care, Ms Kabo Ngombe.

Speaking during a stakeholder sensitisation meeting in Mahalapye recently, Ms Ngombe said research had shown that the annual demand for condoms was 33 million while condom uptake was 1 million condoms a month.

The meeting was meant to de-stigmatise condom use and encourage access to quality condoms. She noted that the condomise campaign is a joint campaign by United Nations Population Fund, Condom Project, UNAIDS and Condom Inter-Agency Task Team.

She said the campaign was initially targeting districts where HIV prevalence was high such as Mahalapye, Selebi Phikwe and Francistown, Ms Ngombe also pointed out that the research had shown that there was too much inter-generational relationships between the youth and grown up people adding that there was a lot of negative peer pressure and media influence.

Also, she said there was little or no parent-child communication about sex hence the need for the campaign. When giving statistics on HIV and condom use in Botswana a representative from UNPF and a member of the condomise campaign, Ms Kefilwe Koogotsitse said according to the latest BAIS results HIV prevalence was higher in females between the ages of 20 and 29 and males between 50 and 59 years old due to intergenerational sex.

Ms Koogotsitse said only 47.1percent people correctly identify a way to avoid HIV transmission. “The average age for first sex is 17 years whereas 19.1percent has experienced sex by the time they are 13. For first time sex, 55 percent reported using a condom”. Ends