HARARE - Population Services International (PSI) boss Patience Kunaka has urged women to use the female condom to prevent unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Kunaka, who revealed that she regularly “uses the female condom herself”, said that the female condom was a “very safe device that did not inhibit or interfere with the enjoyment of sex by couples using it.
“People do not have the correct information about the female condom but I can tell all of you gathered here that it is safe. Please go out there and tell all your friends that it is very safe indeed,” said Kunaka, who was speaking at an HIV/Aids prevention workshop hosted by the Southern African Aids (SafAids) Network in Harare last week.
About 1.1 million Zimbabweans are living with the HIV/Aids virus, with 105 000 of them being children, while 60 percent are women, according to figures released at the workshop by an official from the National Aids Council (NAC). ?
Zimbabwe and Uganda are the only two sub-Saharan countries that have been able to reverse HIV infections among their populations.
However HIV/AIDS remains a major killer in Zimbabwe aided by a barely functional public health system after the bulk of the best qualified doctors, nurses and other skilled health professionals fled economic crisis in the country to seek better pay and living conditions abroad.
At least 3 000 Zimbabweans died because of AIDS-related illnesses every week.
Post published in: News