Sugar daddies fingered in students HIV stats

THE National Aids Council (Nac) has procured 30 condom dispensers for Midlands State University (MSU) as it moves to reduce new HIV infections among adolescents and tertiary education students amid revelations that sugar daddies were the main source of the pandemic among students.

The move is meant to reduce the spread of HIV through the promotion of condom use.

Nac recently announced that 45 percent of tertiary female students were contracting HIV during the course of their degree programmes.

Speaking to parliamentarians at a workshop in Kadoma, Nac Monitoring and Evaluation Director, Mr Amon Mpofu said the major source of HIV among adolescents and female students in tertiary institutions were men above the age of 50.

He said although new infections were going down, it was disturbing to note that most female students in most tertiary institutions contract HIV during the course of their academic studies.

Mr Mpofu said it was disheartening that most adolescent girls were indulging in reckless sexual behaviour which in turn was putting them at risk of contracting HIV.

Nac Midlands Provincial Aids Co-ordinator, Mr Mambewu Shumba said the organisation has procured condom dispensers which have been placed at MSU so as to promote the use of condoms particularly among the youth.

“We have put 21 condom dispensers at MSU and nine more are coming. We are doing this to promote condom use among youths. It has been discovered that there are more new HIV infections among people between 15 and 24 years. Most of these students, particularly females, interact with men who are above 50,” he said.

Mr Shumba said the province had made tremendous success in implementing HIV interventions through various partners.

“There are various intervention strategies that we have deployed as a province to ensure that we close the tap of HIV. We have reached out to various key populations in the province,” he said.

Nac has distributed about 1,2 million condoms this year and is targeting distributing more than 2,5 million condoms in 2019.