UPTAKE of female condoms is on the rise in Kadoma, Mashonaland West province, a local Non-governmental organization which offers free HIV services to commercial sex workers has said.
Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/Aids Research (CeSHHAR) outreach officer for Kadoma, Audrey Chikeya told New Ziana during a recent media tour that they have seen an increase in the uptake of female condoms.
“With female condoms, we have seen an increase in uptake because when we started, female condoms were not very popular with the sex workers but for last month, we had 600 female condoms of different flavours distributed to them,” she said.
Chikeya attributed the rise in the uptake of the contraceptives to the introduction of flavoured brands.
“We have attributed that to the different flavours that come with the female condoms, which then attracts more partners for the sex workers. They say it’s more marketable and sometimes their partners feel like they don’t need to wear a condom but if it’s the women wearing one, then it’s fine,” she said.
She said the increased uptake of female condoms was also a result of the sexual education awareness programs that they conducted among sex workers.
“We can have an average of 20 clients per day, translating to about 100 in a week but most of them are female sex workers. For males, we see about three to five sex workers including transgender, but the number is rising. We screen them for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and treat them, we also do condom education and other HIV services for freeto sex workers in Mhondoro and Sanyati Districts,” she said.
According to the National Aids Council, HIV prevalence in Sanyati District, which includes Kadoma Urban, stands at 11.4 per cent and mining areas usually record the highest STIs, which are a proxy indicator for HIV infections.
“The small-scale miners don’t have the time to seek treatment for STIs and there is very low condom use,” said Sanyati District Aids coordinator Amnot Chipandambiri.
The most vulnerable populations in the district include sex workers and gold panners due to rampant mining operations in the region, adding the district’s HIV hotspots include Rumwe, Patchway, ARDA Sanyati and Chakari.