A Cape Town based organisation has teamed up with a local rapper KroBarz to encourage young people to practice safe sex during the month of love.
TB HIV Care, a non profit organisation (NPO) based in the City Bowl, encourages young people to best replicate a dance challenge to an amapiano remix of KroBarz’s song “Condomise”. They stand a chance of winning a cash price.
The NPO aims to put integrated care at the heart of responding to TB, HIV and other major diseases.
February also commemorates STI (Sexually Transmitted Infections) and condom awareness month.
Michelle Carey, Deputy Communications Manager at TB HIV Care, says condoms are still important in keeping people safe and healthy.
“We have wonderful new tools to prevent HIV, like PrEP (a daily pill) and medical male circumcision, but condoms are still the only tool that can prevent both pregnancy and STIs, including HIV.”
A national study by the Human Sciences Research Council published in 2019 showed that condom use among the youth between 15 to 24 years had remained static between 2012 and 2017 at about 50% for females and 68% for males.
According to the study, this represented a significant drop compared to 2008 when levels were 67% for females and 85% for males.
The City’s health department recently indicated that the distribution of male condoms has nearly halved, while that of female condoms is less than a third of the previous year.
According to the department, the use of male condoms dropped from 30,6 million during the 2019-2020 financial year to 16 085 200 during the 2020-2021 financial year.
The use of female condoms dropped from 954 599 to 305 400 over the same period. The department says this can partially be attributed to people staying at home as per the health directive and fewer visits to clinics during the festive season.
Patricia van der Ross, Mayco member for Community Services and Health, says: “The decline in the use of prophylactics is concerning, especially when coupled with the rise in STIs.
“With February being the month of love, I want to challenge both men and women to start loving themselves first and take the necessary precautions with regards to their reproductive well-being.”
Carey says the aim of the dance challenge is to create awareness in an entertaining manner.
“Young people are smart and follow the trends. By using a dance challenge, we’re trying to inform them of the importance of using condoms in a fun way that lets them put their own spin on the message of safer sex,” said Ms Carey.
For the past 93 years the NPO has been working to prevent, find and treat TB and HIV in South Africa as well as targeting interventions to address the needs of populations at risk, such as prison inmates, sex workers and people who inject drugs.
Alison Best, Communications Manager at the NPO, says the first step in providing care for people with HIV or TB is to find them. She says for this reason, the NPO is committed to a successful testing and screening programme.
“Our strategy is to test and screen people where they are, whether at a clinic, taxi rank, workplace, farm, high school or university. TB HIV Care has both facility-based counsellors in clinics or hospitals and mobile teams that can move around in the community. The mobile teams use customised caravans, mobile units and gazebos to ensure a client’s comfort and privacy.”
She says their testing services also offer a range of wellness services, including screening for TB, STIs, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Best says once a patient has tested positive for either HIV or TB it is important that they receive the appropriate treatment and care. She says the NPO is dedicated to linking clients to care and supporting them to adhere to their treatment where necessary.
“Treatment is also an important part of prevention. An HIV positive individual, who is adhering to their treatment and virally suppressed (has an undetectable viral load) has almost no chance of passing on the virus. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) allows individuals to reduce their viral load, take control of their health and enjoy a normal life expectancy.”
Best explains that TB patients also benefit from early intervention. “And although TB is infectious, once a patient has been on treatment for two weeks, they are no longer infectious and can return to work and everyday life.”
Best says some of the common challenges their clients face are economic hardship and stigmas from society.
“The challenge we face is an advocacy of TB has been overtaken by Covid-19 when it was just getting some political attention. We also feel there has been some HIV fatigue; the youth over the last two years have not received as much HIV education, so we are trying to refocus on the youth.”
Van der Ross says city clinics provide services and medication free of charge and many facilities have dedicated time slots for youth-related health services, which is usually in the afternoons after school.
- For more information visit https://tbhivcare.org/
