By Pretty Chavango.
Harare. (News Of The South) – Out of the estimated 1,023 038 Zimbabweans living with HIV over 600 thousand are women, in a country that has a generalized epidemic with over 50 % of new infections occurring within marriage or long term partnerships.
The facts and figures point towards gender specific gaps threatening the gains that have been made in preventing transmissions .
Zimbabwe Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls Gender Equality and HIV (ZAACA) reports that persistent gender inequality is a key contributor to these figures.
The situation is compounded by limited access to health services and the stigma and discrimination associated with an HIV positive status which deters many women and girls form acting on prevention and treatment .
Zimbabwe joined the the world in celebrating world AIDS day under the theme “ Getting to zero in Africa : Africa’s responsibility. Everyone’s responsibility”, as a renewed call for shared responsibility and global solidarity to end AIDS.
Hinged on ensuring the three Zeros which are, Zero new infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS related deaths with a vision to end AIDS by 2030 .
With 15 years to the 2030 goal, much has to be done to ensure prevention strategies are put in place to curb new infections, women and girls constitute 62% of people living with HIV in the country and should be considered as one of the focal points in addressing the pandemic .
Women`s and girls` subordinate position in society makes it difficult for them to negotiate for safer sex, in a highly patriarchal society where men have much influence on family, religious and cultural tendencies, socialization has seen women and girls including elderly women thrusted with the burden of health care for the infected as well as affected.
To achieve an AIDS free generation root causes of infections need to be nipped from the bud. Negative harmful cultural and religious practices that violate the rights of women and girls are often defended as being part of the morality of the community or accepted as a way of life, making it difficult for women to seek protection under the law.
Stigma attached to sex workers means women in that department have limited or no access to health care including preventive measures, information and yet they also contribute to the spread of the disease by infecting their clients who then go on to infect their partners and it becomes a vicious cycle.
Very few know of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) as they are also vulnerable to rape and forced indulgence in unprotected sex by their customers and can not report as they are not protected by law .With so many cases of gender based violence, sexual and physical violence should be addressed in marriages as women are least likely to demand for protection even in the case of suspected infidelity as this may pave way to gender based violence .
Cross border traders, migrant workers and women living in informal settlement face marginalization as they have limited access to health facilities, information should be passed on to all to insure ever one is educated .
It should be seen to that all people in the society are reached out to if we are to realize zero new infections , marginalization of any sector will mean that they will still be vulnerable and susceptible to infections and spreading it to others , another minority group which has always been shadowed is the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community(LGBTI) , they might be very few amongst us but they still exist and because they already face much stigma in coming out there is very little chance of them having information on their vulnerability to HIV, being infected means they face double stigmatization and are at risk of slowly passing the virus silently as some have both male and female partners (bisexual) and will deter total eradication of the pandemic .
Retrogressive laws that increase women’s vulnerability to HIV , such as the dual legal system that allows for polygamy should be repealed and the law criminalizing non disclosure of HIV status to ones partner impacts on women’s access to Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission PMTCT as this involves testing , following which failure to disclose an HIV positive result to a partner is regarded as a criminal offence some women end up opting to skip the whole procedure as a result, much information shoul be given out on its benefits to protection against infection for the unborn child.
Women also need to take it upon themselves to protect against infection as they sometimes profess ignorance by depending on their partners to take the initiative towards prevention. There have been reports that women were now using the CARE female condom to clear facial black spots instead of its intended purpose, showing clear disregard an responsibility on the part of women considering the fact that they are the most affected yet do not seem to utilize the product where it is most necessary.
There is need to engage men in these preventive measures to demystify stereotypical views so that everyone works together in bringing down HIV .
In order to create zero new infections information should be widely disbursed and available across all sectors of communities , and everyone should be targeted from young children to target key populations as well as care givers so as to ensure knowledge and easy access to health care .
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