‘Botswana has high prevalence of STIs’
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday August 20, 2024 09:08
Speaking at the High-Level HIV/AIDS private sector forum, organised by the Botswana Business Coalition on AIDS (BBCA) in partnership with the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, she pointed out that through their BIAS report of 2021, they recognised that STIs prevalence was 20.8% for people above 15 to 49 years. She added that the recent STI report for 2023, which is the model STI, the prevalence of 16 to 49-year-olds was 16%. “STI burden just like HIV, we have a high burden of STI. Remember that STI we get them the same way we get HIV as HIV is a sexually transmitted disease. If HIV is a problem then all STI diseases are a problem. New infections annually are around 4, 100, which is a statistic that as Botswana we are not doing well. The target was to decrease our new HIV infections by 82.5% as set by the UNAID but we are still around 64%. This shows that we are really not succeeding as much as we would like to in terms of reducing new infections,” she said. She added that the country still had HIV related deaths at approximately 6.4% annually.
She added that it had been reported that they had an aging HIV population where most of the HIV population was elderly citizens with more than 30% of PLWHIV aged more than 50 years and therefore the burden of non communicable diseases was also prevalent amongst them. Dr Tjirare explained that that is caused by aging and their physiology as they grow. The doctor also said research shows that in the presence of HIV suppressed or not, PLWHIV have the higher risks of having cancers. She added that even those virally suppressed still succumbed to cancer because of the neurology, biology and circumstances of the body. Although the country reached the 95-95-92, she said it did not include men as most men had poor health seeking behaviours saying it must be ensured that men living with HIV are virally suppressed. She added that more effort must be done to adolescent boys and girls to ensure that they are also virally suppressed. Speaking of other STIs, she said the common ones include gonorrhoea, clamedia, syphilis and haepetitis B. she added that to some point, a person living with HIV might have STDs, adding that the good thing was those STIs could be treated. She also said syphilis among pregnant women in Botswana was low at two percent, which was a good thing as it was risky for unborn children as it could cause miscarriages or still births. “We are doing our best to ensure that our silver tier is moved to the golden tier hence our dedication to ensure that we treat STIs with the same energy we used to fight against HIV. STDs need a society approach. We need the whole society to fight against them by taking the necessary steps to prevent them. We can start by ensuring that people have income for themselves. We also need women empowerment approach and also address youth unemployment. If we do not do this, we will continue incurring healthcare costs, which cause a strain to the healthcare resources.
There is still stigma and discrimination that needs to be addressed so that people can take their treatments without fear of stigma,” she said. For his part, Minister of Health, Dr Edwin Dikoloti, said the theme of the forum, “Creating Wealth Through a Healthy Workplace,” resonates deeply with the Ministry of Health’s agenda priorities. He explained that it encapsulated the understanding that investing in health was not merely a corporate responsibility but also an economic imperative. He added that it was their position as the MoH that healthy employees were more productive, more engaged, and less likely to require extensive medical care. By prioritising wellness in the workplaces, he said they were not only contributing to the well-being of their employees but also to the overall prosperity of the nation. 'We have the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions that will shape the future of workplace wellness in Botswana. I urge you to take full advantage of this forum by sharing your experiences, insights, and best practices. By providing updates on the current situational analysis of HIV/AIDS, STIs, NCDs, and COVID-19, we will better understand the health landscape and the role each one of us can play in making a positive impact,” he added.