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Campaign notwithstanding, the youth still highly vulnerable to HIV/Aids
2005-10-03 07:11:40
By Prosper Makene
Since the HIV/AIDS pandemic hit the world as a global problem, many young people in Tanzania have fallen victim.
According to the findings from three surveys conducted in Tanzania on youth, HIV and reproductive health last year, about 4 percent of the women and 3 percent of the men aged between 15 and 24 are HIV positive.
A recent study by some principal Tanzania’s health stakeholders has revealed that, despite the vigorous campaign the nation is waging, the country’s youth are still highly vulnerable to the deadly scourge of HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies.
In Iringa Youth Behaviour survey, shows that approximately 12 million youth or one third of the total population of Tanzania between the ages of 10 and 24 face grave challenges concerning their reproductive health specifically with regard to HIV/Aids.
Less than 40 percent of the youth respondents aged 13 and 24 were aware of the existence of male condoms and oral contraceptives as methods of preventing unwanted pregnancies.
The joint study was done as Tanzania HIV/Aids indicators survey by the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS), the National Bureau Of Statistics and ORC Macro of the United States helped a great deal in providing information on HIV/AIDS perceptions in the country.
Other useful surveys on the health problem were the ISHI youth baseline assessment conducted by Health Scope, Iringa Youth Behaviour and Youth Net Project of Family Health International (FHI).
It was also noted that less than half of the sexually active unmarried people had used a condom during their last sexual act.
To be precise, 44 percent of the women and 47 percent of the men had actually used a condom during their last sexual act.
A shocking revelation was that most young people have not tested for HIV/AIDS infection.
In fact only 14 percent of the women and 10 percent of the men aged between 15 and 24 have been tested for HIV/AIDS.
It was established that testing is common in urban areas.
However, among urban youth, it was noted that parental attitudes towards early and premarital pregnancy played a significant role in predicting their sexual behaviour.
In Urban Youth, many relationships exist due to exposure but behavioral change could be noted in some cases due to communication and multiple campaigns and safe sex practice.
Knowledge of the means of transmission of HIV is crucial in enabling people to protect themselves, prevention of HIV is especially important for young people who are often at greater risk because they often have short relationships with multiple partners or engage in other risky behaviour.
According to the report, young respondents in Tanzania were asked the same set of questions as older respondents, whether condom use can help protect people against getting the AIDS virus or not and whether a healthy-looking person can have the AIDS virus.
HIV prevalence data provides important information to planners and enables them to plan on national response, evaluate program impact and ensure progress on the National Multisectoral Strategies Framework on HIV/AIDS of 2003 to 2007.
In Tanzania national HIV prevalence estimates have been derived from prevalence in blood from donors and sentinel surveillance among pregnant women.
Sentinel surveillance of HIV infection in Mainland Tanzania was conducted in 59 sites from 10 regions according to what the report stated.
While HIV infection in pregnant women could be derived from the women attending sentinel clinics, it was noted that it was much more difficult to detect the same in older men and women in the general population.
HIV/AIDS related stigma could be partly attributed to the fact that it is a sexually transmitted diseases and generally there is a negative attitude towards sexual mal-practices.
This on its own has hindered total control of the problem.
Despite concerted global efforts to address stigma, in many societies, people living with HIV/AIDS are still seen as shameful and HIV/AIDS is perceived as a problem of minority groups or as a result of personal irresponsibility.
In such situations discrimination has spread rapidly, fuelling anxiety and prejudice against those living with HIV/AIDS.
”Stigma has grown, maginalising and excluding individuals, leading to social rejection, ultimately this attitude allows societies to excuse themselves from the responsibility of caring for and looking after those who are infected” says the report.
As stated in the National policy on HIV/AIDS, stigma is one of the key challenges in the prevention and control of the pandemic where people living with HIV/AIDS face discrimination and are sometimes rejected because of hostile attitudes.
More importantly, stigma leads to secrecy and denial, which hinders people from seeking counselling and HIV testing, which are crucial steps in fighting against the pandemic.
The official from TACAIDS said that these three surveys have provided comprehensive data on the knowledge that young people have about HIV, health issues and sexual behaviour.
’If used by programs and government officials in Tanzania, it will help our partners design more effective youth programs to curb the diseases. What is the use of collecting information if it is not going to be used?’ said an official from TACAIDS.
It also added that TACAIDS has designed projects based on best practices within the program called ’models’ or incorporated trends such as ’Mainstream gender’.
It, however, said ’we tend to forget that these are our categories and this is how we make sense out public health problems that we face as a nation, whether we work in government, NGO, or donor sectors.’
In 2003, Tanzania Mainland was estimated to have about 1,820,00 people living with HIV.
It is also important to note that a total of 176,102 AIDS cases have been reported from 21 regions since 1983.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is an escalating problem worldwide and in 2002 an estimated 42 million people were living with HIV/AIDS additionally 13,700 adults and children are becoming infected each day and by 2010 it is anticipated that an additional 45 million will have become infected.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst affected region with 28.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS.
The epidemic is a serious threat to the country’s social and economic development and has serious and direct implications on social services.
In the absence of a cure, the devastating impact of the epidemic is incomprehensible.
It has been established that poverty significantly influence the spread of HIV/AIDS, which ultimately leads to loss of the economically active segment of the society, leading to a reduction in income.
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