Zimbabweans are biggest condom users in the world

ZIMBABWE has recorded the highest condom usage in the world over the last five years, according to the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey of 2011.

The development has contributed to the reduction of the HIV and Aids prevalence rate in the country.

However, the three province of Matabeleland region - Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South - remain at the top in HIV and Aids prevalence compared to other provinces.

This emerged during the ongoing HIV and Aids capacity building training workshop for journalists, which began in Kwekwe yesterday.

Presenting the overview of Zimbabwe's response to HIV and Aids, National Aids Council (NAC) monitoring and evaluation director Mr Amon Mpofu commended Zimbabweans for adopting condom usage and said the development has helped the country to scale up its fight against the disease.

Mr Mpofu said condom usage among other intervention strategies were paying dividends as evidenced by the reduction of the prevalence rate from around 21 percent in 2006 to 15 percent this year.

The prevalence rate describes the number of HIV-positive people at a point in time and is usually based on national HIV estimates.

He also said the country recorded improved awareness due to massive educational programmes on the disease, which have resulted in behaviour change.

Although the prevalence rate for Matabeleland region is the highest, Mr Mpofu said the trend remained stable due to improved access to quality treatment services.

At the moment Zimbabwe has 1,3 million people living with HIV and Aids of which 510 000 are on anti-retroviral treatment.