HIV free babies infected in adolescence
Patricia Edwin | Thursday July 17, 2014 10:36
“PMTCT has put a decline to the number of infections on children born with HIV but now they get infected with the virus in their adolescence,” she said. Rabantheng was making a presentation at the National Training on Comprehensive Sexuality Education workshop held in Francistown this week. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) hosted the workshop.
Rabantheng said the greatest challenge in thwarting new infections is that some young people find it difficult to negotiate safe sexual habits. “They can’t stand up for themselves and say they aren’t ready for sexual activity,” she said, adding that the girl child is affected more than boys. She indicated that they had observed another trend where teenage girls are HIV negative in their first pregnancy, but test positive in their second or third pregnancies. “This could be largely because when they come for registration of their first pregnancies we do not offer them sufficient counselling nor emphasise the importance of maintaining their HIV status,” she said.
Rabantheng further said that herpes is now the leading sexually transmitted infection (STI) recorded in health posts. “Vaginal discharge infections such as Gonorrhoea and Chlamydia were leading and now new studies have shown that Herpes and Syphilis have taken lead hand in hand, especially in young people,” she said. She noted that the young generation need to understand that they have no choice but to use condoms to prevent infection.
According to Rabantheng, in 2013 44 young males impregnated girls and 750 girls fell pregnant. She said 92 girls dropped out of school at Form 1, 194 girls dropped out at Form 4 and 180 girls dropped at Form 5.Rabantheng said the use of contraceptives is low in the country, languishing at 42 percent. She said information gathering in Botswana was a cause for concern. “We don’t value data. There are only 18 youth friendly centres. We are reporting but is it the true picture of Botswana? Data is usually lumped together and there is no clear picture of what’s going on,” she said.