Sexual abuse cases being swept under the carpet

National AIDS Council (NAC) last week expressed concern over the number of sexual abuse cases that are being swept under the carpet, thereby exposing victims to HIV. This can be avoided by administering post exposure prophylaxis (PEP).

NAC Mutare Rural District AIDS Coodinator (DAC) Willard Mudzikati said kangaroo family courts are frustrating HIV prevention efforts among child sexual abuse victims, who would have been raped within the home by delaying police reports and access to health care.

"Over the past three months the district recorded 87 sexual abuse cases with only nine of them receiving post exposure prophylaxis (PEP)," said Mudzikati.

PEP is medication that can prevent infection from HIV if administered within 72 hours of exposure to the virus.

He added that there is a late reportage of sexual abuse cases in Mutare district. “Communities play a major role in delaying reportage of cases and consequently access to PEP particularly where the abuse occurs within the family, as they would hold family courts to deliberate on the issue,” Mudzikati said.

He further said that as a district they are conducting campaigns targeting community leaders and support as well as other partners.

“We are engaging community leaders such as religious leaders, traditional leaders, child protection committees and schools because these are the key enablers to PEP,” Mudzikati said. 

Worryingly, Mudzikati revealed that of the 87 sexual abuse cases, four of the victims were children under four years old and none of them received PEP. "52 of the 87 people who were sexually abused were aged between 11 to 16 years old, which is school-going age,” he said.

Mutare District Nursing Officer (DNO) Margret Guwira also told the meeting that there appeared to be an increase in the number of teenage pregnancies.

“The number of teenage pregnancies is on the increase and we need your help in addressing this challenge,” Guwira told the meeting, triggering a debate on the need for comprehensive sexual education and the extent to which parents need to communicate with their children.

Guwira said this was happening even after the Constitutional Court outlawed marriage to girls under the age of 18 earlier this year.

But child marriages appear to be endemic in the country, with the 2014 multiple indicator cluster survey report stating that for people aged between 20 and 49 years, one in three women were married or got in a union before the age of 18.

That same report shows that 5 percent of young people aged between 15 and 19 years were married before the age of 18. Even globally, 25,000 girls are estimated to be getting married before the age of 18 on a daily basis.

The District Medical Officer, Admire Maravanyika, revealed that due to the very young age of some of the child mothers, hospitals were delivering through operations.

“Most of them end up delivering through caesarean sections, because they would be so young and would not know what would be happening,” Maravanyika said.