Lifestyle Health Organisation (LHF) president Joseph Moyo says that 168 sex workers in Livingstone have disclosed their HIV status.
Moyo added that the evidence which the organisation gathered as a “result of ongoing research” revealed that it was the unwillingness of clients to use condoms that put them at risk.
During an interview, Moyo said that his organisation had in the past two weeks been working on gathering information from sex workers in Livingstone and that 11 had disclosed that they were pregnant but were not sure which of the men were responsible.
“We have so far met 238 sex workers especially in Maramba Township and out of this number 168 have admitted being HIV positive and are on antiretroviral treatment. The ages of those who have so far come out to speak freely range between 18 to 42 but the oldest, who could not state her HIV status, is 63 years old,” said Moyo.
He added that the 168 figure was just a tip of the iceberg as his organisation had been concentrating only in one residential area and was yet to get to other areas including the town centre where several guest houses serve as brothels.
“The danger is that the 168 sex workers, most of them Zimbabweans, I have talked to is not exhaustive as we have about five residential areas still to cover and the town centre.”
Another aspect of sex work is that men who buy sex are not willing to use condoms and most times they don’t know the status of the sex workers. “These men are getting infected with the virus and later on pass it to their spouses,” he said.
Moyo further added that the sex workers said that they slept with more than 20 men on peak business days such as weekends and long holidays.
“These women have confessed to sleeping with at least seven to ten men on a bad day or night but on a good day such as Fridays and weekends and long public holidays they say it is good business time for them as they can sleep with more than 20. The fact that condoms are not used and disclosure is not happening is derailing the fight against fight against HIV and AIDS,” Moyo said.
He said that in the past two weeks his organisation had buit a good relationship with the sex workers and also said that the numbers may be more than 238.
“We have been building relationships and a few have been willing to talk but these are not the only ones. If you multiply the number of the others who do not want to talk then the numbers are somewhere at about 68 sex workers. We don’t know what the situation is in Choma, Chirundu Kazungula and Kapiri-Mposhi.
This is a volcano building up and yet to erupt. It is also worrying to note that among the clients are young boys as young as 16 to 20 years old who are still at school and say that they want to experiment. The question then is, “what is the future for our nation and society as this is an alarming danger?”
