Dissemination of and use of HIV / aids information by students at the university of Botswana
| Author | Lauretta Wamunza/Benzies Boadi Stephen Mutula |
| Position | Kampala, Uganda/Department of Library and Information Studies University of Botswana |
| Pages | 62-77 |
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Globally, HIV/AIDS has borne devastating effects on social, political and economic front of largely all countries with Africa bearing the brunt of it all. No country, community, family or individual can for sure claim to be shielded from the negative implications of HIV/AIDS. Many people around the world are either infected by the pandemic or affected by the problems that HIV/AIDS engenders. HIV/AIDS is a catastrophic pandemic because the millions of people who become infected get sick, lots of resources in terms of manpower are needed. Moreover, enormous finances are invested in the search for a cure or a vaccine. According to Lesetedi (1999), HIV/AIDS in Botswana affects the most productive age groups, between twenty-five and forty years of the population. This results in a shortage of skilled labour needed for development and seriously reduces the level of productivity and economic growth of the country. Barnett and Whiteside (2002) note that money spent world-wide on researching AIDS vaccines a year is around US $300-600 million.
The world community and individual country efforts are continuing in an attempt to find a cure for the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Major advances have had some level of success in clinical treatment of the pandemic with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that control the viral load of infected people. The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organisation (2005) point out that, in the past two years, access to ARV treatment has improved remarkably both in developed and developing countries.
However, though the use of ARV is expected to give some form of respite to those living with HIV/AIDS, it is neither a cure nor a panacea to the problem, as treatments with these cocktail of drugs are reputed to last for a limited time and are also associated with high rates of severe toxicity. In a comprehensive review of more than 10,000 adult AIDS patients participating in twenty- one different clinical trial group studies in the United States, 10% of the patients are reported to have developed hepatoxicity and 23% of the 10,000 adult AIDS patients had to discontinue therapy permanently (Green, 2003). Beyond treatment, education and awareness creation about HIV/AIDS remain the most sustainable approach to mitigating the pandemic.
Developing countries have made impressive strides in documenting the spread of HIV/AIDS and preventing additional infections. However, the epidemic continues to spread in many places and increased effort is needed to contain it. United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) (2005) states that the HIV/AIDS epidemic claimed 3.1 million lives in 2005 worldwide. In 2005, an estimated 40.3 million people were living with HIV and close to 5 million people were newly infected with the virus. sub-Saharan Africa remains the hardest hit by the epidemic. In 2005 the continent was home to 25.8 million people living with HIV, almost 1 million more people than in 2003. Moreover, an estimated 2.4 million people died of HIV- related illnesses in sub-Saharan Africa, while a further 3.2 million became infected with HIV (UNAIDS and WHO, 2005).
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Individual countries in Africa are also bearing the brunt of HIV/AIDs and have stepped up efforts to fight the pandemic
Barnett and Whiteside (2002) point out that in South Africa, one-fifth of the adult population is infected and HIV will claim the lives of half of all the fifteen-year olds by 2010. Kalipeni, et al. (2004) observes that in Uganda, the government embarked on a massive sensitization programme in the mid-1980's in an effort to stem the spread of the epidemic. In the long run, these efforts yielded results in terms of decrease in infection rates. Uganda was among one of the first countries in Africa to respond with open and concerted efforts to prevent the spread of the disease. In a study undertaken by UNAIDS and WHO in 1999 in two districts of Kampala namely, Rakai and Masaka, which had been hardest hit by the scourge, infection levels were found to range between 5-9 percent, representing a decrease of about one-fifth (UNAIDS and WHO, 1999). Anecdotal reports from Kenya show that the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has dropped from 14% in 2000 to 5.6% in 2006.
In Botswana, the first HIV/AIDS case was reported in 1985. Since then, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has increased enormously.
According to the AIDS
Education and Research Trust (AVERT) (2004), an estimated 260,000 people in Botswana were living with HIV in 2004. It is estimated that by the yea 2010 two-thirds of today's fifteen-year olds in Botswana, will die prematurely of AIDS (Barnett and Whiteside, 2002). Similarly, AVERT (2004) states that the life expectancy in Botswana is now only 39 years, while it would have been 72 years if it were not for HIV/AIDS. Botswana is one of the countries that have been hardest hit by the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic. The consequences of HIV/AIDS have been felt not only by individuals, families and communities, but also by the health systems, education and other public sectors. Public sectors have lost skilled manpower and the government tax base has been reduced. This is due to the fact that when people fall sick they cannot work, resulting not only in a reduction of taxable incomes, but also affecting the patients' purchasing power.
The government of Botswana is spending a lot of money in fighting HIV/AIDS. For example, the funds spent by the government of Botswana on HIV/AIDS in the year 2002 were US $69.8 million. Additionally, development partners in Botswana such as the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership (ACHAP) spent US $41.8 million in 2002 in the fight against HIV/AIDS (Masupu, et al., 2003). By 2002 there were 67,000 orphans registered with the government with budget needs of US $1.3 million (Masupu, et al., 2003). The government is also involved in providing its citizens suffering from HIV/AIDS with free antiretroviral drugs. By 2006 there were 60,000 people enrolled on ARV program (Masupu, et al., 2003). In the 2006 budget speech presented to parliament by the Minister of Finance and Development
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Planning, the Office of the President was allocated US $266 million, the largest share of the development budget for 2006-2007. Of this budget, 52.4% went into the fight for HIV/AIDS (Gaolathe, 2006). Barnett and Whiteside (2002) state that the government of Botswana will have to spend between 7% and 18% more of its national budget on health projects by 2010 because of HIV/AIDS.
Moreover, the government of Botswana continues to make concerted efforts with the help of development agencies and civil society to educate people and disseminate information on HIV/AIDS so as to prevent new infections from coming up and to eradicate the stigma associated with the disease. The government, through the Ministry of Education, with the help of UNDP, the government of Brazil and ACHAP has facilitated a teacher capacity building programme aimed at improving teachers' knowledge on HIV/AIDS. This programme has endeavoured to demystify and destigimatise HIV/AIDS by breaking down cultural beliefs about sex and sexuality in classrooms and communities at large. Similarly, a national youth-based organization known as Youth Health Organisation (YOHO) was formed to provide the youth with reproductive health education and mobilisation. YOHO has implemented four major programmes which focus on peer education, theatre and arts, advocacy, research and evaluation (Masupu, et al., 2003). Moreover, in 2002, YOHO organised a nation-wide month of youth against HIV/AIDS which resulted in the launch of the Bosele International Theatre festivals to raise HIV/AIDS awareness among the youths in Botswana
The public is availed by the Ministry of Health in Botswana with day-to-day living information such as the ABC of HIV/AIDS, which is translated as:"Abstain, Be faithful, and Condomise. Moreover, road shows with drama groups are regularly hosted countrywide on HIV/AIDS with the ABC slogan. Radio programmes that are both entertaining and informative to the public have similarly been developed. A programme like Makgabeng (Useful knowledge), is aired on Radio Botswana and deals with issues related to HIV/AIDS. This programme is a result of the collaboration between the government of Botswana and the Botswana and USA Partnership (BOTUSA). The national television, Botswana Television (BTV) also telecasts HIV/AIDS awareness programmes like Talk-Back and Re-mmogo (Togetherness). These programmes are aired to educate viewers on issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS (Masupu, et al., 2003). Similarly, the government has availed the public with free and convenient voluntary counselling and testing services by setting up the Tebelopele HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres (VCTCs) country-wide. The test takes no more than thirty minutes to administer. Sixteen Tebelopele Centres and four mobile caravans are operational in the districts as a result of the collaboration between the government of Botswana and BOTUSA (Masupu, et al., 2003).
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The University of Botswana was established by an Act of Parliament on 1s...
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