HIV and the curse of the blessers

Friday, August 25, 2023 | 690 Views |

Back to basics: The country’s fight against HIV stems back to efforts around the ABCs. The stubborn infection rates, especially amongst young girls, threaten to undo the gains that have been made over the years of fighting the disease

The latest research shows that the country records 2,200 new infections every year and a majority of these involve young women and teen girls. The same studies indicate that older men are responsible for the transmissions, writes NNASARETHA KGAMANYANE

On social media, any talk of blessers is treated as a running joke but the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BAIS) V findings released recently, show a far more sinister side to the “trending topic”.

In fact, the blesser trend is more of a curse and a matter of life and death. So prominent has the “blesser and blessee” phenomenon been in recent years, that it is increasingly seen as acceptable or tolerable.

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