The high price of safer sex
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 17, 1995
Clive Simpkins
With all the brouhaha about a national health scheme, the whole issue of marketing safer sex to ill-informed, superstitious and suspicious communities is in danger of being eclipsed, or altogether lost. Get ready for an unpopular and un-PC but vital series of observations. The recent international Aids conference in South Africa highlighted some scary trends, not least of which is the unbelievable male chauvinism dominant in African culture. An Aids education worker was heard to say that she tells black women to say "no condom, no sex" and the following day the women arrive at the clinic with a black eye or other injuries. A recent SABC television programme on genetic defects in babies further highlighted this black male ego problem. In rural areas they simply walk out on the female if she produces a defective child. The rationale being that she's bewitched or impure in some way without any chance that he might be responsible. These attitudes are really scary though, given the recent announcement by Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma, that the HIV infection rate in kwaZulu/Natal is, at 20 percent, the highest in the country. It doesn't take too much brain tissue to deduce that the infection is clearly in the heterosexual population and largely in the black community, based on demographics alone. The challenge facing the country, if we're not to be medically, economically and infrastructurally crippled in the not too distant 10 to 15 years, is to introduce the use of condoms as a norm in cultures where they're currently a no-no and equally importantly, to ensure they're available at an affordable price. Condoms have emerged from the closet and are now merchandised in all their varied glory on the front counters of pharmacies and even at the corner cafe, attracting quick-buck manufacturers, importers and marketers. What's not immediately obvious or important to the average Caucasian, is the resulting astonishing cost of safer sex. In a random suss-out, all condoms cost more than R2 per unit. Add a pretty essential accompaniment, to avoid friction which might create invisible and lethal lacerations in the latex, namely Johnson & Johnson's KY lubricating jelly at about R20 -- yes, you read it right -- for the large tube. Let's assume parsimonious use of the KY, and you'll get a dozen uses out of it. That's R2,50 per stint, bringing the total cost of the indulgence to R4,50. Given the statistics, which indicate a three times per night frequency as not unusual in certain communities - - particularly the economically disadvantaged and condom-averse ones -- and you're up to R7,50 per night to practise safer sex. Unless there's a dramatic shift in the marketing and advertising and promotions of free or at least truly affordable condoms and lubricants, we might as well start switching off the lights in the country. Forget the national heath or Deeble option debates on medical care. We might have virtually nobody around to need them.
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