08 Dec 2024

Jwaneng District has recorded a total of 250 cases of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) across its health facilities in the last quarter, principal nursing officer, Mr Isaac Seledi has said.

He noted that the rising number of STI cases in the district showed that a lot of people still engaged in unprotected sex despite the availability of free condoms in health facilities.

Mr Seledi was speaking at the District World AIDS Day commemoration in Jwaneng recently, which was held under the theme; Take the Rights Path. 

He underscored the need to take preventative measures to reduce the prevalence of HIV and other STIs. He also encouraged people to test for HIV on a regular basis and adhere to treatment once enrolled. He raised concern about men who were reluctant to test, even when their pregnant partners went for testing. 

He said from the 2 494 people who were currently enrolled on the ARV treatment across the district, 1 624 were women while 870 were men. 

He also noted that adherence was at 91 per cent, owing to loss of contact among other factors.

However, Mr Seledi said the town had achieved a 99 per cent viral suppression rate against the national 90 per cent target. 

He also said the district was doing well on the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme, which saw two new women being enrolled for the programme while 19 of the 118 who were tested in the last quarter were already on treatment. He said none of the babies tested HIV positive.

“We test the babies born to HIV positive mothers to establish if they have contacted the virus, and all the 12 that were tested came out negative and this shows that our PMTCT programme is effective,” he said.

For her part, Mrs Botswana 2024/2025, Ms Oampata Leroy-Mosepidi said even though she appreciated that Botswana had made strides in making progressive laws and policies that promoted the rights of people, there was still need to advocate for legal issues regarding some key populations.

“I wish to note that there are certain human rights and critical legal issues, such as the criminalisation of sex work, age of consent for adolescents accessing HIV testing and related services that require review and key populations. If left unattended, these issues will continue to make certain segments of our population vulnerable to HIV infections and defeat the country’s efforts of fighting HIV and AIDS,” she said.

Notwithstanding, she applauded the civil society for their contribution towards mobilising people and creating awareness on HIV prevention and testing treatment. 

She said such partnerships would go a long way in ensuring that the country’s efforts towards fighting HIV/AIDS were fruitful.

She also encouraged Batswana to avoid lifestyles and habits that promoted the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, which she acknowledged were on the rise.

“Batswana are generally pre-disposed to the risk factors of NCDs. Among others, smoking, excessive use of alcohol, eating unhealthy diets and physical inactivity. In this regard, I appeal to all of us to always be mindful of our lifestyles to minimise the risk factors for NCDs,” she said.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Duncan Marumoloa implored people to utilise government programmes intended to combat HIV/AIDS and unite to fight stigma and discrimination. Ends