Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 28, 2002
Andrew Meldrum
Garish coloured lights advertise Livingstone's bars and nightclubs, which cater to an assortment of tourists, truck drivers, army soldiers and scores of brightly painted bar girls. The most popular nightclub is under a big marquee and its catchy, rhythmic music fills the dusty street.
Taxi drivers linger nearby, waiting for the late night business of ferrying the bar-goers to hotels, boarding houses and brothels. They also offer their passengers a more unusual service: condoms, along with advice on safe sex.
Tuesday's UNAids report, which shows that almost 30-million people in sub-Saharan Africa are already infected with HIV or Aids, has a particularly chilling relevance to Zambia. The country has one of the world's highest rates of HIV/Aids infection, with nearly 20% of the adult population infected.
Livingstone, a tourist centre perched above Victoria Falls, has the country's highest infection rate: 31% of adults, according to government statistics.
Despite the desperate statistics, the town offers glimpses of hope. A project to train taxi drivers to act as safe sex teachers and mentors is one of several reaching out to groups exposed to the threat of the virus.
"Aids is a severe problem here. We all know people who have died and people who are suffering. A taxi driver died recently," says cabbie David Kanandu. "We've learned how to protect ourselves and we are telling others. We give pamphlets and condoms to our passengers. We tell them how to reduce their risks."
Fishermen, army soldiers, truck drivers, teenagers and prostitutes are all targeted in programmes designed at Livingstone's Sepo Centre, which receives funding and training from the British International HIV/Aids Alliance.
The taxi drivers attended a two-day weekend workshop two months ago and now they are enthusiastic sex counsellors. "This has opened our minds," says Kanandu.
"We've learned that having sex must be done with knowledge. That way we can avoid catching Aids."
The taxi drivers hope to expand their programme. They are talking about setting up an outdoor screening of sex education videos near their ranks. "People would come to see the videos and then we could have group discussions," says Wilson Mvula (28).
A key part of the community programmes is the promotion of voluntary testing and counselling. "Everyone is a winner in the testing," says nurse Precious Mafo, who runs the Maramba clinic's testing centre. "Those who are negative are obviously happy and are encouraged to take steps to avoid infection. Those who are positive are counselled to live as positively as possible, to have good diets and habits, and this also helps many people."
Good diet helps, but only to a point. As the UNAids report points out, anti-retroviral drugs are desperately scarce in Africa and Zambia is no exception.
With one million Zambians living with HIV/Aids, it is estimated that 100 000 need anti-retrovirals now.
Anti-retrovirals are limited to a few private clinics and the University Teaching hospital in Lusaka. Few Zambians can afford the more than R5 000 a year needed for the treatment.
"The cost is totally out of reach of most Zambians," says Daphetone Siame, director of the Zambian programme for the HIV/Aids Alliance.
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