There has been an increase in the involvement in multiple sexual partnerships among both Malawian men and women, a UNAIDS prevent ion gap report released this month revealed.
Health experts have attributed this to some deep rooted cultural practices and the comfort in the availability of Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
The report noted that Malawi is one of some southern African countries where surveys have revealed that risky sexual behaviour among men and women are still common despite the ravaging HIV scourge.
“Nationally representative population-based surveys conducted in the region suggest that sexual risk behaviours among men and women are still common. On average 13 percent of men in the most recent surveys reported multiple sexual partnerships during 12 months before the survey,” reads part of the report.
It adds that trends varied between countries but Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda and Zimbabwe saw increases in multiple partnerships among both men and women.
Chairperson for Malawi Network of Aids Service Organisations (Manaso), Maziko Matemba, said most people know about the disease and its drivers but behaviour change is a big problem.
“People seem to now be used to the messages and have forgotten that Aids is a killer and our sub-Saharan Region is the hardest hit. This is an area which we now need to concentrate on. People have the information but we need to encourage them to become responsible. This is the duty for all stakeholders working in this area,” he said.
Executive Director for Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen) George Jobe says there is too much trust on having sexual relationships with people who are married.
“Most people in multiple and concurrent sexual relationships are married people. Those who have affairs with these people have the mind-set that this group of people is HIV free,” he said.
Programme Manager for Journalists Association against Aids (JournAids) Dingaani Mithi noted that multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships is a key driver of the HIV epidemic in Malawi as people are caught in a sexual network web, where if one is infected, they can infect all people involved.
“It is important to educate people to stick to one partner and always use condoms and also for men to adopt male medical circumcision to reduce HIV contraction risk,” he said.
Mithi also said men are still behind in tackling HIV saying more interventions targeting men could help reduce infections.
“We still need to scale up more interventions to address multiple and concurrent partnerships,” he urged.
The disclosures of the report vindicates the results of a study by Stanford University School of Medicine research team which revealed that sub-Saharan Africa is failing to change high risk behaviours despite promotion programmes on abstinence and faithfulness.
A statement published on Avert website in March 2015 indicated that the report indicates that the research team measured the impact of President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) programmes focusing on abstinence and faithfulness by comparing trends in sexual behaviour derived from national demographics and health surveys.
Pepfar is the largest global health initiative dedicated to HIV/Aids and Malawi has benefited over $10 million from this fund.
Soul City Institute Regional Programme research findings on multiple and concurrent partnerships also revealed that sexual dissatisfaction, cultural norms that encourage multiple partnerships (especially among men) are some of the things that are perpetuating the trend.
Despite this development, 2015 statistics which National Aids Commission released on Wednesday last week indicate that new HIV infections (all ages) have dropped from 42,000 to 33,000 in 2015.
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