21 Aug 2018

Multiple concurrent partnerships are regarded as a major contributor to new HIV infections in Botswana.

In an interview, District AIDS Coordinator in Francistown, Ms Elizabeth Wright said many people having multiple partners can end up being connected in a sexual relationship ‘chain’ that can involve a lot of people living with HIV with or without their knowledge.

She saidt in that chain, partners may start trusting each other and decide to stop using condoms believing they were safe, which in turn led to new HIV infections.

Ms Wright also added that women had less say in making decisions in relationships, and that them more at risk of contracting HIV.

She stated that newly infected people at a stage of acute infection, transmitted HIV more.

She said the acute infection stage was dangerous as it was where the HIV carrier would be unaware of their status and look healthy.

She said some people in multiple relationships could end up getting HIV from different infected partners, which could lead to re-infections.

She said infidelity in relationships and marriages could be caused by migrating temporarily from one place to another, because of work commitments, business trips, whereby the remaining or moving partner will find a someone to have a sexual relationship with.

The issue of sugar mummies or daddies and their ‘ma 14’ (younger partners) also promoted multiple relationships according to Ms Wright, as cross generational sex can lead to younger partners getting infected with HIV as they had less or no say in decision-making such as the use of condoms. 

She also said peer pressure, was a contributor to multiple relationships, as youths sometimes influenced others to have many partners.

She added that those not involved with multiple partners may be called bad names or be laughed at by their peers, which may push them to get involved with more than one partners to be acceptable to the cycle.

Ms Wright said some girls and women chose to have many partners to improve their economic status.

She also blamed alcohol and drug abuse as a contributor as some people sometimes got drunk and got involved in unplanned and unprotected sexual relationships.

She advised people to be loyal to each other by having one partner saying that can reduce cases of new HIV infections, and also to use condoms and to test for HIV regularly, adding that couple testing was the best.

On other issues, Ms Wright expressed concern about lack of new people testing for HIV in Francistown, saying that their statistics showed that the same people usually tested.

She said men were always left behind in HIV testing as only a few tested, adding they were working with organisations such as men sector to ensure that education was provided to men about the importance of testing.

“Some men take HIV results of their partners as theirs, if the partner is negative, the man will think he is negative too, which is wrong because partners can have different HIV results,” she explained.

Ms Wright also said they were planning campaigns including health talks, door to door HIV counselling and testing and community mobilisation, where they would work with authorities such as dikgosi and pastors. ENDS