MBIRE District remains one of the least HIV affected areas across Zimbabwe but, a
recent upsurge in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among the youths is
threatening the record.
The district’s HIV incidence rate hangs around 0, 08 percent according to the
National AIDS Council.
However, in recent years, as the Government is tarring the Mahuwe – Kanyemba
highway, cases of STI’s among youths (10-24 years) especially around Mahuwe are
alarming.
Without giving actual figures, Claudius Musandaera, the National AIDS Council
Mbire District Co-ordinator, said the figures have been spiralling since the arrival of
construction workers on the road.
He said while the community is already imbedded with teenage pregnancies and
marriages, the emergency of STI’s is another cause for concern.
Musandaera said the scarcity of resources to carry out health awareness and
educational campaigns in the community was the major obstacle to reach out to
communities.
“We are, however, very thankful to Exodus and Company, a local road engineering
company working on the Mahuwe – Mushumbi Pools Highway who have since
availed transport and other accessories to help us carry out awareness campaigns,”
he said.
The National AIDS Council believes the surge in youth infected with STI’s and being
pregnant in the community was due to lack of education from both parents and the
community.
He urged parents to have time for sexual reproductive health discussions with their
children, either boys or girls.
As the National AIDS Council, they have since begun having meetings with parents
encouraging them to have time to talk to their teenage children on these issues.
He said there must be parent-to-child communication in every household, where
parents have time to talk about sexual reproductive health.
Teenage pregnancies have also been attributed to a shortage of schools in the
district, resulting in many children dropping out of school.
The schools are too sparsely spread out, especially secondary schools. A number of
children end up renting rooms in communities close to their school, where they will
be staying alone, thereby, getting exposed to the vices of the community including
peer pressure leading them to having unprotected sex.
Those, who cannot afford to go for these “bush boarding houses” as they are known
in Mbire, end up dropping out of school.
Lack of at least basic education has been attributed to a high percentage of girls’
pregnancies.
Sexually transmitted infections are also prevalent in areas where there are artisanal
mining activities. However, the artisanal miners are hard to reach since every time
they see strangers they run away.
Musandaera said they have since engaged the services of traditional leaders so that
they can help them gather the miners and educate them on the dangers of having
multiple and concurrent partners.
