During a two day NAC organized workshop for Newspaper Editors and Radio and TV station managers at Chinhoyi’s CUT Hotel I was shocked to learn that only 8 percent of all HIV infections are attributed to prostitution.
I know that some of you reading this piece are shocked too because we all believe that prostitution is the major cause of HIV infections but that’s not true as you will see here.
Since the advent of HIV/AIDS in the mid 1980s most religions have not been very active in HIV awareness programs except maybe for the Roman Catholic and a few other traditional ones which have set up passive HIV departments as a formality. I think the main reason is that very few people don’t want to hear much about HIV because there is advocacy for abstinence which most people don’t want to hear.
Many people myself included have always believed that prostitution was the main actor when it came to HIV infections but now you know it’s not. The question now in everyone’s mind is what is responsible for the remaining 92 percent of the HIV infections. I shall try to answer that question in the best way I can in this article from what I gleaned at the workshop and what I also think could be other factors.
I have got a teacher friend who tested HIV positive way back in the late 90s like myself and has killed four wives in the process due to non disclosure. His first wife a teacher like himself fell ill in 2004 and died in 2005 .A traditional ceremony was held and he was given his wife’s young sister a teacher as well to takeover the position of his late wife .My teacher friend did not tell his new wife that he was HIV+ and in no time the new wife got pregnant and after giving birth to a bouncing baby girl she fell ill and died of an HIV related illness. Soon after the mother’s death the baby girl died as well.
My friend had to wait another 2 or so years before remarrying after his inlaws had failed to provide a replacement wife .He got married to a teacher from our neighbouring school and did not tell her that he was on ART .In no time the wife was pregnant and a baby boy was born and did not live long as he died a few months after birth. The third wife soon fell ill and died soon after of an HIV related illness.
My HIV+ friend had to wait another two years before trying to find a new wife .He confided in me that he was looking for a wife to marry. I was very frank with him and sternly warned him that I would report him to the police if he married an HIV- woman. We argued over this issue for quite some time until he finally gave in .He asked me to help him look for a suitable HIV+ lady which was a very easy task and soon I had connected him to two lady teachers from our Same Status WhatsApp Group. One of the ladies I connected him to was a lecturer at one of the country’s universities.
My friend is now happily married to the lecturer lady and at the same time getting pensions from his 3 wives’ deceased estates as the surviving spouse.
There are lots of harmful Religious and Traditional activities going on out there which fuel HIV infections. Most prophets and other religious leaders prey on the gullible ladies and abuse them sexually thereby infecting them with HIV.A lot of people especially women in abusive marriages and relationships find solace in going to the new churches sprouting all over the place .These churches on the other hand are led by sadists and sex maniacs whose main aim is to prey on the desperate women.
Traditional wife and husband inheritance are other harmful practices that fuel HIV infections .There are also other practices where young girls are given to elderly men with unknown HIV statuses as wives .As if this is not enough elderly women especially widows and wives of absent husbands prey on young boys for sexual gratification because there is nowhere else to get sex .We have reached a Sodom and Gomorrah type of situation in our country. I can go on and on describing the rot that has gripped our country and how HIV will continue giving us sleepless nights with no solution in sight.
Briefly the above factors and others I have left out are among the main causes of HIV/AIDs which account for the other 92 percent causes of HIV.
By Piason Maringwa
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