09 Sep 2013

About 15 000 of the country’s population is exposed to new HIV/AIDS infections yearly.

The coordinator of National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA), Mr Richard Matlhare said this at launch of the September month of prayer in Ramotswa on Sunday. 

He said although the country had made strides to curb HIV/AIDS related deaths over the years, the same could not be said about the emergence of new infections.

Mr Matlhare said studies have shown that currently, the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among women aged between 30 to 34 years is at 50 per cent. 

Furthermore, he added that the national HIV/AIDS prevalence rate was at 17.6 per cent and 25 per cent for adults, which made the country’s prevalence rate second to Swaziland in the world.  Mr Matlhare said the prevalence rate disfavoured females with 20.4 per cent whilst males had 14.2 per cent. 

He blamed behaviour for the diseases to spread. He said according to the first Botswana Youth Risk Behavioural Surveillance Survey among 10 to 19 years old students, 19 per cent indicated that they have had sexual contact before reaching the age of 13. Whilst 45 per cent of them indicated that they did not use condoms and 19.3 per cent said they had sex with two or more people. 

He added that other factors such as multiple concurrent partnerships, intergenerational sex and drugs use had fuelled the spread. Mr Matlhare said this had worked against the results achieved from other programmes such as PMTCT and ARV uptake. 

For his part, the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Olebile Gaborone said there was need for the family and community to play their role in order to win the battle against the scourge.

“We cannot sit and wish away the problems associated with HIV/AIDS without actively adhering to behavioural change,”Mr Gaborone said. Likewise, he said the country could not guarantee morally sound future generations if there was no firm foundation of proper social moral values. 

Hence, he said the society expects a lot from the Christian community to be role models in upholding acceptable social and family values. Mr Gaborone further added that the government was committed to improving the quality of health care and leading Botswana to an HIV free generation by 2016. 

Whilst Balete senior Chief Representative Kgosi Ambrose Mokgosi called upon the community to stand as united front to fight the disease, adding that those who are not infected are affected.

The launch was held with the theme, building Botswana through commitment to zero new infections, Stop AIDS keep the promise.  ENDS