zero Aids-related deaths and zero stigma and discrimination we need to rewind our mindsets to a decade ago where prevention was the all.

True, ART has transformed lives as it has given a new lease of life to positive living but prevention should always be part of the package. It is your responsibility to be safe.
Speaking at the launch of Zimbabwe Aids Network Taskforce in Harare early this week, the Health Adviser to the President Dr Timothy Stamps said that he was concerned that prevention was losing focus. ZAN is the umbrella body for Aids service organisations.

He said that it was important that prevention is drummed up as more people were getting infected at a time the nation concentrated on dispensing ART.

If we get comfortable we are liable to relapse and in no time we can see the prevalence rate going up.

Uganda was in the throngs of the Aids pandemic in the 90s and reversed the trend in mid-2000 but today they are back to square one and are wondering where they went wrong.

They relaxed, got complacent and relapsed. There are many people who today say what is there to be said about HIV that we have not heard.

There is, prevention, behaviour change no matter how many times one has heard of this, the mind tends to let the waist get in charge. When the physical needs dictate what the body does, then there is a danger of getting into the abyss and have a crisis again.

“As you go on to revamp this organisation, I urge you to seek to prevent HIV infection instead of concentrating on the already infected because as we are only assisting the infected, someone somewhere is being infected with the virus.

“We have concentrated more on issues to do with CD4 counts and ARVs rather than prevention. We should look for the source and root cause of the problem, prevention is more difficult but it is more important,” Dr Stamps said.

Dr Stamps went on to say that it was important that the decision-makers listened to the voice of youths.

“There is need to listen to the feedback from young people when they tell us the challenges they face, so that we can deal with those problems. Young people today are influenced by television and pornographic materials so there is need to help them with ways to resist such influence,” he added.

Programmers need to be reminded that the crunch is not yet over, as rightly pointed out by Dr Stamps the focus now is pinned on ART provision but with prevention getting lost from the radar there is a real danger that the gains Zimbabwe has made can be eroded.

In 2001 the prevalence rate was 26 percent but with messages on behaviour change, prevention of mother to child, prevention from partner to partner through effective and consistent condom use, and sticking to one uninfected partner the prevalence rate has gone down to 14,3 percent today.

There is no room to relax, it has to go down to one-digit levels but pointers on the ground indicate otherwise if not reinforced.

A workmate was concerned and asked if there was behaviour change as he has witnessed something indicating the opposite.

“My sister, I am concerned with the behaviour of my workmates and even the general populace especially at the workplace and when they go to workshops,” he said recently.
I enquired what he meant as he was not clear.

“I am surprised that today someone can still judge someone’s status by merely looking at them and saying ’this is good stuff’ to the extent of indulging in unprotected sex.

This happens especially when people have travelled on work-related assignments,” he said.

He went on to say that he was saddened by the network of sexual activity as he knows that man X slept with girl Y and there is a chain of seven people involved which is rather risky.

“People are still behaving recklessly and I can vouch that this is from someone who knows his/her HIV status and is not concerned. Such people think that they will be fixing all the people they take to bed. It is true out of ignorance they are still determined to spread the virus and it’s a pity that someone can engage in a flirt and end up sleeping in no time. It is such a pity and very sad because all the people I am talking about have spouses back at home,” he said.

An HIV positive person does not need to get cross-infections as sleeping around will definitely result in that.

My colleague said he was certain that there was no protection used as the men ended up bragging that they have done it latex-free.

“In most cases, the men even have the guts to brag that I have bedded that one and that one so I wonder why my sisters get used like that. Why would a total stranger want to sleep with you without using protection? They are out to infect you, period,” he said.

“I have also been concerned because at times the women have ended up pregnant and for most of these men paying lobola does not mean anything to them. A couple of thousands of dollars and one comes the ‘middle house’, it’s a chain because being small house means one is the main act then but the rest they have been relegated to what

I call the middle houses,” he added.

I have been baffled too by the number of chats on social sites that brag that they are going out with so and so who is a married person and are even expecting a baby from the married partner.

Recent statistics by the National Aids Council showed that 15 percent of adults are HIV positive and this was a decrease from 18 percent from 2005-2006.

Prevalence was highest among those who are widowed and those divorced/separated. Prevalence increased with the number of lifetime partners one would have had.

It was shown that 12 percent are discordant implying that one partner is infected and the other is not. Discordance is an issue that I have received several e-mails on and will revisit soon.

Prevention holds the key to zero new infections. Practise safe sex.

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