Zimba District HIV/AIDS Co-ordination (DACA) Advisor Doreen Hamkankala says 5,000 condoms are earmarked for distribution next week to young people. Ms. Hamkankala says the condoms will be distributed in strategic places, adding that a lot of reproductive people especially youths from 15 – 49 years engage themselves in illicit sex.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS today, Ms. Hamkankala stressed that Zimba Town Council’s condom distribution exercise would be done as a routine activity aimed at ending HIV AIDS by the year, 2030.
“Zimba Town Council working with the District HIV/AIDS Committee will distribute 4,000 male and 1,000 female condoms to enhance protected sex in the district,” she said.
The DACA observed that Zimba is situated along the Livingstone – Lusaka road hence a lot of people tend to engage so much in sexual activities.
She revealed that people can get tested for free for HIV at Zimba Mission Hospital or any other health facility in the district so that they know their HIV status.
She urged Zimba residents not to endanger their lives by engaging themselves in unprotected sex.
Ms. Hamkankala adds that young people who could not abstain from sex are encouraged to use condoms to avoid re-infecting others.
She notes that the HIV prevalence rate is high in Zimba district attributing this as due to multiple sexual partners, careless lifestyles, lack of information as well as traditional myths associated with AIDS.
