HIV/AIDS among college students in Zimbabwe

In a social chat with students who preferred anonymity for security reasons said that their first encounter in sex when they were at college left them HIV positive a move that left me disheartened as I could notice the sad and wilting faces they all wear as they spilled their secrecy to the reporter Caven Masuku. One female student who was at liberty to share her ordeal with me said she could protect her boyfriend at college by using the condom, but one of the days when they were having sex the condom broke and that is how she infected her boyfriend. Another male student I asked about how he contracted HIV told me that his girlfriend who was HIV positive lied in order not to lose him. “She was double crossing me with one of the sugar daddy who could give her money to buy denims and to spoil herself. At times she use could give me the money and I was not aware that she was indulging in unprotected sex” , said Denny who refused to give his real name for security reasons Most students leave college with HIV and a graduate certificate which is a shame especially to developing countries like Zimbabwe. Students suffer to STD for some time and do not rush to near clinics to seek medication so as to avoid HIV. Research’s conducted in Zimbabwe about the spread of HIV among students at colleges shows that they is need for a critical part of the effort to get students to realize that they are at risk if they engage in unprotected sex. Most students who have a special name for sex at college calls it a “core module”. Both male and female students over weekends visit night clubs where they met their sex partners and indulge in sex without wearing condoms and make them vulnerable to HIV. One student from a local college said that “even though they were engaging in relatively high-risk sexual behaviour, most students at college which is roughly about 40 to 50% of them are engaging in unprotected receptive anal intercourse, probably the highest risk activity you can engage in. Yet none of them thought they were likely or very likely to contract HIV." In Zimbabwe I suggest that it is high time relevant authority should create some plays or drama that discourages college students from being wield about sexual escapade said one of the concerned college student. College authorities should use traditional facet things to get Persuasive messages should be created and circulated among the students to educate them that , it can happen to anybody, whether they are pretty or not, whether they are smart or not; it does not matter. It does not have a preference. Anybody can catch that disease. Students should know that it is not one campus, not even one part of the country, and not just one demographic. Anyone who is having unprotected sex in any of the local colleges in Zimbabwe can be at risk. Health workers together with volunteers once a month should hit the streets and college hostels to pass out safe sex kits to anyone who ‘will take them. Each kit handed to both female and male students at colleges should contain condoms, along with instructions on how to use them and information about healthy relationships, abstinence, and HIV testing. Research conducted elsewhere indicates that educators should make an effort to prevent all the others on college campuses because lives are at stake. In Zimbabwe and across the continent and even global, HIV is a disease that is taking the lives of young adults. It is claiming in masses and volumes the lives of our next generation of leaders, taking the lives of those who will contribute to the country’s development. In Zimbabwe if we do not work hard to address this plight, we will lose a generation and where will we be left limping said Gorden Mbizi one of the male students People especially students, have to stand up, take responsibility for their lives and behaviour to avoid the spread of HIV, he said