Condom consumption at three million per month
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday May 24, 2022 03:54
Addressing the Public Accounts Committee recently, national coordinator of National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA), Ontiretse Letlhare revealed that Botswana consumes three million condoms per month.
He stated that condoms are vital because they offer dual protection against HIV, unplanned pregnancy, and also play an important role in family planning.
“Last December we were faced with an acute shortage of condoms that was as a result of procurement issues. We had encountered delays in the procurement, but in March we received a donation of 18 million condoms by USAID to last for six months. We have also sorted out our procurement processes and we will no longer encounter any shortage,” Letlhare said.
Letlhare also told the committee about encountering problems with the acceptance of female condoms due to so many factors. However, he stated that NAHPA is doing all it can to advertise and sensitise women and the general public on the importance of using the female condom.
He added that the female condom is largely rejected by young adults particularly because of its size and the perception that it is complicated to insert. However, Letlhare said they have made progress in fighting HIV/AIDS.
He stated that the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BAIS) study was carried out to establish the state of the pandemic and assess the impact on HIV and programming in the country. He said the results had established that the HIV positive population in the country is ageing as compared to what obtained in the previous surveys.
“There is a decline in new HIV infections amongst the young. The population aged between 15 and 24 years stands at 3.4 percent, the population aged between 15 and 64 years has an HIV prevalence of 20.8% while for the age between 25 and 64 years prevalence stands at 27.1%,” Letlhare said.
He stated that the strategy to minimise new HIV infections is bearing fruit hence the lesser prevalence in younger ages and what is pleasing is that 95.1% of the country’s population has tested and knows their HIV status.
Letlhare further added that 98% of those who have tested HIV positive are enrolled on antiretroviral therapy and 97.9% of those enrolled on treatment are virally suppressed.