15 Oct 2013

The arithmetic number zero signifies the absence of any magnitude or amount. Yet in the fight against HIV/AIDS, zero is a magical number that means attaining so much more, hence every country would want to be at zero by year 2015.

Talk about zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related death, which is UNAIDS 2011-2015 strategy roadmap, the number has the hope the world needs. And for Botswana, it would mean moving from being one of the worst countries affected by the virus to being a free society.

However, there appears to be one major hurdle standing between the country and its aspiration from being free from the virus, which is behavioural change.

For instance, there is ample evidence to suggest that the society is continuing with negative attitudes towards issues of HIV/AIDS. The recent being the Botswana Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance Survey, which showed that about 20.5 per cent of students’ between 10 and 19 years interviewed from 145 schools have had sexual intercourse.

Out of that number, 19.1 per cent had intercourse before reaching the age of 13 and only 55 per cent used condoms for the first time they had sexual intercourse.

“We are still far from arriving at zero,” said Ms Tsholofelo Molebatsi of Botlhale Support Group in Otse. “There is need for targeted education on behavioural change.”

Ms Molebatsi said the campaign for beahviour change should target boys to make them adopt positive attitude towards sexual issues. “It is the boy child who approaches the girl child, it is the boy child who initiative sex and overpowers the girl child,” she opined.

She said it was regrettable that even teenage pregnancy issues were often associated with girls even though it was boys who also impregnated girls. Mr Obusitswe Pitlagano of Otse Support Group supported Ms Molebatsi’s view. He decried the alarming rate of new infections despite the existing interventions.

However, he expressed optimism that Botswana would eventually gain strides in the fight against the disease, yet it would not come easy.

“HIV is a complex condition, we are still experiencing new infections but with interventions through NACA it is possible,” he added. Nevertheless, Mr Pitlagano said it would be a far-fetched dream to achieve such fate in 2015, which is exactly two years from now.

He based his argument on factors such as unemployment rates, multiple concurrent partnerships, intergenerational sex and inconsistent use of condoms, which drive the disease spread. In addition to this, there is ignorance from the church as the disease is still regarded as a sin according to Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Programme (BOCAIP).

Ms Lorato Mphusu, the BOCAIP programmes officer, said discriminating against the diseases had not helped the church as it faced with problems of multiple concurrent partnerships, intergenerational sex, and HIV/AIDS.

“At this moment we cannot be assured of getting to zero by 2015,” she added. Ms Mphusu pointed that despite these challenge, information about the disease was available in the public domain, even in rural places.

“What is left is for the public to internalize it,” Ms Mphusu added. The predicament was also conveyed by the coordinator of the National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA), Mr Richard Matlhare, recently in Ramotswa during prayers session to plead to God to intervene in the disease fight.

Mr Matlhare blamed the risky behaviors such as inter-generational sex, multiple concurrent partners, sex workers and drugs abuse for reversing the gains made through programs such as PMTCT and ARV uptake among others. With an estimated 340 000 of the population living with the virus and 15 000 infected annually, attaining a zero fate would impose a burden expenditure of about P1.3 billion on ARV’s annually.

In the long term, the zero aspiration would save Botswana’s economic growth from being cut by between 25 per cent and 35 per cent by 2021 according to the economic impact of HIV/AIDS study of 2007.

The zero aspiration will also save the country from a reduced labour force growth, a younger labour force, reduced productivity and reduced investment which the study highlighted.In the interim, multi-sectoral approach towards behavioural change will continue to be implemented.

The fourth Botswana AIDS Impact Survey, whose results are not yet public, is expected to present a clear picture of the AIDS pestilence. This would be before the country assess itself along the UNAIDS strategy roadmap of 2011-2015 and its own Vision 2016 a year later, which both aims for enormous strides against the HIV/AIDS. ENDS