Tamar Kahn
5 September 2007
Cape Town — Young adults aged 20-30 underestimate the risks that overlapping sexual relationships pose for contracting HIV, warns a new study from the Centre for AIDS Development, Research & Evaluation (Cadre).
The research has important implications for the design of HIV prevention campaigns, which have generally concentrated on youth aged 15-20 , and focused on the "A (A)bstain, B (B)e Faithful, use a C (C)ondom" mantra. "It's important to evolve away from the ABC message because it's far too simplistic," said Cadre executive director Warren Parker.
Concurrent sexual partnerships are a major risk factor for contracting HIV . About 33% of women and 12,1% of men aged 25- 30 are HIV infected, according to the Human Sciences Research Council.
The Cadre report, which was based on a household survey of more than 7000 people and focus group follow-up interviews with 74 young adults, found concurrent sexual partnerships were common and widely accepted by men and women. Many respondents separated sex and love, saying they had sex with love for a "main partner" and sex without love for "other" partners.
All the young adults were well aware of HIV, intensified by personal experience of the disease. Half of them said they knew someone who was HIV infected, or had died from AIDS-related illness. A fifth of the women and 14% of the men said they had helped care for someone who was sick with AIDS. However, this awareness seemed to be at odds with their reported sexual behaviour, as few respondents said they consistently used condoms. Condom use tended to wane over time in most long-term relationships.
Rather than seeing faithfulness meaning having monogamous relationships, many respondents understood it as protecting their main partner from knowing that they were having other relationships. "I am faithful to (my girlfriend) because even when I have other girlfriends I do not walk around with them for her to see," said one young man.
"Being faithful is protecting the one you love from hurt," said a young woman. "You make sure that he only knows the best about you, and you give him the best love."
Many respondents said knowing that someone was already involved in a relationship signalled their availability as a potential partner .
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