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Adelaide Moyo Chronicle Reporter
FIFTY percent of prostitutes in the country are living with HIV and 10 percent of them are infected every year, the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV and Aids Research (CeSHHAR) has revealed. This was said at a two-day UNAIDS conference in Victoria Falls aimed at finding strategies to fight HIV and Aids in member countries.

UNAIDS country director Michael Bartos said despite the alarming rate from the 2015 study, prostitutes can be a solution in fighting HIV and Aids.

“10 percent of prostitutes are infected in a year. In the past it’s often been said that sex workers are a problem but rather we should use them as a solution because if they correctly educate the public, especially their clients, they can help in fighting HIV,” said Bartos.

“CeSHHAR programmes of outreach to sex workers helped in reaching out to sex workers through empowering them and making them part of the solution to the Aids problem. They managed to convince quite a number in lessening exposure to infection chances by teaching them the rule of always using a condom.”

He encouraged partners involved in paid sex to be responsible for protecting themselves.

“Clients need to know that for any sexual act in the context of paid sex, it’s effective to use condoms and that should be a universal norm,” Barton said.

He said the country has at least 800,000 people on antiretroviral treatment.

“Through shared responsibility and a combination of diverse disciplines and stakeholders, we will be able to fight the Aids epidemic and end it by 2030,” Bartos said.

According to a UNAIDS guidance note on HIV and TB, the two are the leading causes of mortality in prisons.

“HIV is transmitted in prison settings through the sharing of contaminated injecting equipment among people who inject drugs, consensual or coerced unsafe sexual practices including rape, unsafe skin piercing and tattooing practices as well as modifications and blood-borne transmission resulting from the sharing of shaving razors and the improper sterilisation or reuse of medical and dental instruments,’ reads the note.

“Interventions aim to prevent the transmission of HIV and TB among men, women and children living in closed settings; to provide treatment and support when necessary and to ensure the continuity of treatment.”