25 Mar 2026

Despite Botswana’s landmark achievements in the national HIV response, a critical gap remains in status awareness among young people aged 15–24, says the Non-Governmental Organisation Renale Seabe (RESENO) coordinator.

In an interview ahead of the Month of Youth Against AIDS commemoration scheduled for March 27, Mr Oaitse Pelaelo, revealed that while the country was hitting global targets in treatment and viral suppression, the First 90 for knowledge of one’s HIV status, was lagging behind in the younger generation.

Mr Pelaelo said data from the Fifth Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BAIS V) showed that young people were the group most likely to test positive without prior knowledge of their status. He said the result showed that a significant number of youth aged 15 to 24 did not receive an HIV test in the 12 months leading up to the survey.

While youth struggle with initial testing, he said those who were aware of their status were successfully meeting the second and third 90 targets for treatment and viral load suppression.

Mr Pelaelo highlighted a remarkable but uneven progress, indicating that high infection rates persisted in specific districts, with young females (15 to 24) being significantly more likely to be newly infected than males.

He said contributing factors to such a trend included a steady decrease in condom use among young people, particularly females, despite high general awareness of HIV, low uptake of testing and non-adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) among young mothers as well as high unemployment and alarming rates of physical violence, affecting 28.4 per cent of females and 43 per cent of males before age 18, continued to drive the epidemic.

To address such disruptions, Mr Pelaelo said Lobatse would host the Month of Youth Against AIDS event at the Botswana Geoscience Institute under the theme, Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response. He said the event aimed to target youth aged 10 to 35 to strengthen advocacy for equality and inclusion in healthcare.

The event would also focus on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as inclusive dialogue via a panel discussion which would feature a wide cross-section of society, including learners, out-of-school youth, young persons with disabilities and those from Affirmative Action areas. BOPA