10 Oct 2017

HIV and AIDS has forced the nation to have no choice, but go against its culture and talk sexuality issues with children, a stand which challenged churches to embrace if the war against the pandemic is to be won.

Speaking at the national closure of month of prayer against AIDS ceremony at Letlhakeng on Sunday, University of Botswana academic, Professor Musa Dube advised that the church is equally affected as the rest of the society and should therefore avoid being bystanders, but should come forth and play a leading role in the war against the pandemic more so that it has an authority over the community.

Professor Dube said that statistics also indicated that women were the most affected by HIV and AIDS than men. 

This should encourage the church to get even more involved in HIV and AIDS issues as 90 per cent of church goers were women, she added.

“So, because most church goers are women, then it means that the church is seriously affected and my advice to the churches is that they should come up with target specific strategies to assist especially its female flock,” she said.

Professor Dube also said research indicated that churches were not doing much practically to translate the gospel they preach to kids. 

She also said that the month of September should be used to thank God for the political leadership, which had over the years had the wisdom to come up with HIV and AIDS programmes such as PMTCT and free ARVs.

Giving an overview of the national HIV response, the National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) acting national coordinator, Mr Joseph Kefas said according to BAIS IV, Kweneng West District is estimated to have a 7 per cent prevalence rate amongst men and 16.1 per cent among women. 

The most affected age groups are 31-49 years with a prevalence of 31 per cent, 25-49 years at 27.9 per cent and 15-49 years at 20 per cent.

Mr Kefas also decried low condom usage in Kweneng West and said this contributed to the 451 cases of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) recorded from January to March this year. 

About 481 were recorded from April to June, an increase which he described as alarming.

Mr Kefas however, indicated that the rate of HIV testing in the district was pleasing as from January to March this year, a total of 1 788 people tested while from April to June 2 244 people tested.

“These efforts are commendable. However, we still encourage more people to test as we try to identify more positives in order to meet our 90-90-90 targets that would ultimately lead Botswana to ending AIDS by 2030,” he said.

For his part, the Member of Parliament for Letlhakeng-Lephepe, Mr Liakat Kablay appreciated government initiatives geared towards the fight against HIV/AIDS. ENDS