MANY women are continuing to shun female condoms, with their uptake in the country still way below that of male condoms.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, the monitoring and evaluation manager for the National Aids Council (Nac), Amon Mpofu, said more awareness was thus needed to encourage women to use these condoms in the interest of their health and well-being.
This comes after Zimbabwe recently joined the international community in commemorating World Condom Day, amid estimates that the country needs about 173 million condoms a year as they are at the heart of preventing HIV-Aids infections.
“Female condom uptake is much lower than that for male condoms. It seems that many females generally prefer males to wear condoms. Why they prefer male condoms, we are not yet very sure,” Mpofu said.
He added that what was worrying was the still relatively high incidents of new HIV infections in the country, especially among young women — which could be prevented if females were able to better protect themselves.
“Nac is worried about HIV infections among women, which are always higher than that for males due to several issues which include gender-based violence.
“We have instances where young women who are adolescents are getting infections from older men. These issues can be curbed a bit when women are aware of how they can protect themselves better.
“It is also of concern that the HIV knowledge gap continues to widen, especially with regards to the younger generation who are the most vulnerable.
“This shows that there is a need to intensify adolescents’ differentiated care guideline models that specifically target them in order to reduce cases of HIV among them, which are a cause of major concern,” Mpofu said further.
Last year, the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) distributed 375 861 male condoms against 30 559 female ones.
It expressed concern then over the low uptake of female condoms, as well as the soaring cases of gender-based violence in the country.
Female condoms are also 95 percent effective in preventing pregnancy when used correctly.
However, statistics show that due to incorrect use, they are 79-percent effective — and hence 21 women in every 100 who use a female condom become pregnant. Male condoms, in comparison, are 85 percent effective.