23 Mar 2017

Batswana have been challenged to take personal responsibility towards HIV/AIDS battle, which is yet to be won.

The appeal was made by acting manager of the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), Ghanzi, Mr Kabelo Lerothodi at the Month of Youth Against AIDS (MYAA) commemoration at Charles Hill recently.

Mr Lerothodi said MYAA 2017 focused on the National Prevention Strategy the Paradigm Shift for prevention of new infections among the youth aged 10-35 years.

He said it was vital to move from curative to prevention through promotion of primary health care model.

The model, he said, put emphasis on community involvement and structural empowerment to reduce the risks of new HIV transmissions/infections.

He challenged both the young and old from all spheres of life to join hands in ending new HIV infections and revive community structures like Village Multi sectoral AIDS committees and DMSACs (District Multi-sectoral AIDS Committees) to be in a position to drive the HIV response.

The Hands Up #HIV Prevention theme, Mr Lerothodi challenged individuals, groups as well as institutions to commit to the fast track targets of ending AIDS by 2030.

“The prospects of world without HIV can be realised,” he stated.

Mr Lerothodi said youth population in the country continued to experience increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS pandemic exacerbated by emerging life trends and uncontrollable technological growth, putting pressure on behaviour and response towards life threatening situations.

Among young people, he said HIV prevalence remained high particularly among women of ages 15-24 years (10.7 per cent) as compared to their male counterparts (4.8 per cent).

Citing the Botswana Impact AIDS survey (BAIS) IV 2013, he said it indicated that HIV prevalence for the 15-19-year olds was 2.9 per cent for males and 6.4 per cent for females.

For the age groups 20-24, males recorded five per cent prevalence and females 14.7 per cent fuelled by age disparate sexual relationships.

He said comprehensive knowledge on HIV continued to be below 50 per cent among young people.

He said Ghanzi district faced challenges in combating HIV and AID such as high teenage pregnancy, high number of sexually transmitted infections, and high number of people abusing alcohol, low SMC (Safe Male circumcision) uptake and mobile populations. ENDS