Our shocking sex network!

MBABANE – Unfaithful lovers or partners have been officially warned that cheating with only one person exposes them to an HIV infection rate similar to individuals who have sex with 12 people – at the same time.

Sexual networks and communities of multiple partners are driving the HIV epidemic in the country.
These networks are rife among married couples but not unique to them as unmarried couples also drive the epidemic.
NERCHA Director Dr Derek von Wissel says efforts to understand this phenomenon has thus far hit a snag.
“We are faced by a huge problem here. We have failed to establish why people have multiple concurrent partners.”
He said the networks were trends whereby people sleep with various partners.

Studies have revealed shocking findings to the effect that Swazis are having arbitrary sexual relationships.
“In a study done in Malawi for example, it emerged that, if you have sex with someone from Lavumisa, you are in the same blood network as someone who had sex in Piggs Peak”, said Von Wissel.

He said the big problem is the fact that these people are in relationships and they are not getting married.  
Studies have revealed that 70 per cent of the country’s adult population is not in stable family unions.
The director said most love affairs were in vain.

“Statistics tell us that only 31.9 per cent of women in the age group between 15 and 49 are married while there are only 23 per cent of men in the same age group who are settling down.”
“About 20 to 30 years ago, men used to have girlfriends and get married.

We do not understand why people have multiple partners now. People do not want to get married anymore; only 23 per cent of men are married. About 70 per cent of men are currently unattached.
They are not in a committed enough relationship to be faithful.
“What does it mean to be faithful? We are not being judgemental about this; we are not saying it’s good or bad. We are just saying this society has changed.”

He said studies were required to try and understand this problem so that it could be corrected.
Von Wissel said concurrent relations were not stable.
“We undertook several campaigns on faithfulness but it seems as though such campaigns are not working, as more people are in multi sexual relationships.

“In Swaziland we have accepted the abnormal as being normal. The abnormal levels of disease, death, orphans have been accepted as normal. The abnormal practice of multiple concurrent partners has been accepted as the norm,” he said.
He said several studies had been commissioned to try and understand this phenomenon but they were not coming up with a solution.

“This is why multiple concurrent partners are a big issue. Another big issue is that people who are newly infected have a high level of the virus in the body. There it is very infectious and easy to transmit,” he said.