Phikwe sheds unenviable AIDS title

KENNETH BANDA
Correspondent | Friday November 30, 2007 00:00

Hardly anyone in the last few years would mention HIV/AIDS prevalence in Botswana without making reference to Selebi Phikwe.

In 2004, according to a sentinel surveillance survey, at least 52 percent of pregnant women who visited health facilities were infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. This was the highest in the country.

Over the past three years, through numerous interventions, HIV cases have gone down to 41.5 percent.

These statistics mean, Phikwe has shed its infamous title of being the AIDS capital of Botswana. Chobe now has the highest prevalence rate, followed by Francistown.

Selebi Phikwe has dropped to third, with about 23 percent of the population being infected, according to an AIDS Impact Survey. Mining towns in sub-Saharan Africa are notoriously known to have high HIV/AIDS prevalence and Phikwe was no exception.

Researchers and analysts attribute this to an influx of commercial sex workers or prostitutes.

Such workers are lured by the prospects of clients with relatively high disposable income.
Again, most people who work on the mines usually leave their families behind and are vulnerable to engaging in sexual intercourse with new partners or resort to commercial sex workers.

The boom-and-bust lifestyle in many mining towns has also been blamed for the spread of HIV/AIDS. A transitory work force plus a thriving sex trade in many mining towns, often leads to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

The Selebi Phikwe District Aids Coordinating office acknowledges that Phikwe, as a mining town, is susceptible to risky sexual behaviour which can lead to HIV infections.

ACHAP Programme Officer, Elizabeth Moshi attributes the decline in figures to people talking openly about the disease.

Moshi says mobility is high and the exchange of partners in the mining town is high.

She says there is a lot of information regarding HIV/AIDS and most people are now informed countrywide.

Moshi says Botswana is doing well as far as the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme is concerned, which means most children are born HIV free.

She adds that the mushrooming of AIDS organisation to fight the scourge has also led to the decline in new infections.

BCL mine's comprehensive HIV/AIDS workplace programme, has also been hailed as one intervention that is helping reverse AIDS figures in Phikwe.

Moshi says there are a number of deliberate programmes aimed at fighting the scourge which involve the community.

These include community mobilisation, house-to-house educational campaigns and the distribution of condoms in bars.

Phikwe sex workers and long distance truck drivers have also been targeted in a comprehensive HIV/AIDS programme.

Moshi said peer educators engage sex workers and truck drivers and distribute condoms.
She says their appeal to the local authority is to have a gazetted parking area for truck drivers so that peer educators can reach all of them.

'It has been our appeal to have a gazetted area for truck drivers so that we can reach them in our area. At the moment they park anywhere where there is open space in town,' she says.

The Phikwe District AIDS office is advocating for income generating projects to take sex workers away from the street.

The office of the District AIDS coordinator says some women engaged in prostitution after the closure of textile firms in Phikwe. The textile manufacturers were large employers of women.

The office says the increase in access to treatment as well as health facilities has helped reduce the spread of the disease.

There is an Infectious Disease Control Centre at the Phikwe Government Hospital, satellite clinics around town and another one will open in Botshabelo early next year.

'These centres are equipped with state of the art machinery that is used for CD4 count.
It now takes a few days for people to get their CD4 results while in the past it used to take several months,' Moshi says.

Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Watipa Gaogane says the increase in the number of private practitioners distributing Anti Retroviral drugs has aided HIV patients.

The officer and her colleagues in the District AIDS office admit that stigma remains a challenge.

The District AIDS office, which is headed by Lamech Myengwa, is worried that men are still reluctant to test for HIV.

Moshi says this is a countrywide trend. However, she says that this is slowly changing as they encourage men to test.

'This is bearing fruit. It is not that men do not want to test. Some spend most of their time at work while women who are not working have the opportunity to do so. We try and offer testing services to men wherever they are,' Moshi says.

The AIDS office has realised the importance of teaching students about the dangers of HIV/AIDS at an early stage. There are frequent meetings between the officers and teachers 'so that we speak the same language with students'.

A non governmental AIDS organisation, Botshelong Centre (BOCAIP) has joined the bandwagon in the fight against AIDS.

Centre Coordinator, Oteng Kebitseope, says the Christian organisation is involved in, among others, outreach education in schools, churches and public places.

Kebitseope says their efforts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and mitigate its effects are bearing fruit.

'We make house-to-house visits, while some people, especially couples come here for counselling,' she says.

Kebitseope says while the centre opened in 2001, they started making progress in 2005 as there was a lot of stigma attached to the disease.

She believes that the situation is changing for the better as most people are informed on HIV/AIDS issues.

Kebitseope says the trend is that most people in the lower social class in society tend to be open with their HIV status compared to middle and high income earners.

'Most people with higher incomes are still living in denial, but those in the lower structures of society are more open about their status,' she says.

On the controversial subject that most churches do not subscribe to the use of condoms, Kebitseope says the church acknowledges the physical well being of a person.
'In as much as we are spiritual, we consider our physical wellbeing. That is why we offer marriage counselling. We encourage abstinence and although we talk about the use of condoms, we do not distribute them,' Kebitseope says.

She ads that BOCAIP advocates for the promotion of the three ABCs to curb the spread of the epidemic. A stands for abstinence, B- be faithful and C- condomise.

The declining AIDS figures in this mining town of more than 50,000 people means that there is a ray of hope that the fight against the disease is not completely lost.