A student in Mongu Zambia is experiencing terrible pain after sleeping with a married man over the weekend.

The student named Mercy told BBN (Barotseland Broadcasting Network) in an interview that she felt as if fire was burning her private parts and she was failing to sit properly without opening her legs for fresh air. She also spoke about failing to urinate even though she felt a lot of pressure.

“It all started yesterday in the morning after I left the lodge in town. What really happened is that, I went with my friends to attend the Mongu music festival on Saturday night at Mongu stadium where musicians such as Chef 187, Bobby east and many Mbunga artists were performing.

Within the arena three guys approached us and we shared each one of them with my friends. We also went to continue partying at Shanaya club in town. After 02:00hrs my friends with their partners left the club and went to their respectively guys home.

We also left the club and went to check on a room but unfortunately all four lodges we found they were already full. We only managed to find a room at Hippo’s and we slept there. But after having sex, he told me that he was a married man although his wife was a jealousy type and also very violent. So he said we should play it very low by going to chill to far places away from Mongu town. I told him that I was also a student and needed some support of formal of upkeeps.

Around 05:00hrs he woke up and demanded for a morning glory and afterwards he said he was going home so that his wife shouldn’t notice that he slept out but from the club. He left me a K50 and said he was going to send me something before 10:00hrs.

After leaving the lodge around 09:00hrs, I started feeling so much pain inside my vagina but again considering the fact that his penis was too small, I doubted. The pain kept on growing reaching to the point of me failing to sleep well last night. It was too hot last night and I could feel fire burning inside my vagina and was forced sat on a dish of water. I went to the hospital in the morning but they saying maybe it’s just internal pains and only told me to get this type of medication. Still more , it’s even getting worse.

Around 11hrs, we went to see Dr Mushitu in Mabumbu area of Mongu and after telling him what transpired he said my issue it’s too complicated because the wife had put medicines to protect his husband penis that whoever sleeps with him shall never have peace with her vagina. He said I should go to Kalabo or Lukulu for proper treatment but again it’s too expensive because it’s to clean and remove the Ghost”

Efforts are being made to get Mercy further treatment with witch doctors. Is this a case of witchcraft or some infection/STI? We will never know.

It’s alarming how it’s becoming normal for many young students -even in Zimbabwe- to sleep around with hopes of gaining something financially. The married man gave Mercy 50 Kwacha which is roughly USD$2.70. It does not buy a morning after (she didn’t mention a condom) and medication. She did not mention the man sending her any more money and she mentions that she cannot afford any more treatments.

This incident could give clues on how the HIV virus continues to spread at the rate that it does. People simply do not fear for their health but rather prioritise their pleasure. The Mongu student is not even worried that she could be HIV positive or pregnant but she’s concerned about the pains so that her life goes back to normal. A UN report revealed that Zimbabwe has the third-highest number of HIV positive women in Southern Africa. With new inventions like the HIV prevention ring for women and the false confidence that could come from having it, such behaviour displayed by the Mongu student will get even worse. Will finding a cure for HIV benefit the moral integrity of our African society?

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The dapivirine ring is an intravaginal silicone ring, developed by the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) for HIV prevention

The ring releases the antiretroviral drug dapivirine for a month and reduces HIV infection by 35%. %. Its safety has been impressive in all clinical trials to date. It received approval from the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organisation (WHO) also added it to its list of prequalified medicines.

South Africa is the first country to approve the ring as it was successfully tested in six African countries (South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)

Dr Zeda Rosenberg, IPM’s founder and CEO, said:

“This approval is a positive step towards offering women more prevention options they can use to control their health on their own terms.

We look forward to collaborating with the South African government and partners to incorporate the monthly ring into the health system, and into women’s lives in South Africa.”

HIV experts argue that expanding women’s HIV prevention choices is critical to controlling the epidemic and ensuring their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Women are currently most affected by the HIV virus with nearly two-thirds of new adult infections in South Africa and across the continent occurring among women.

This is yet another huge stride in the continuous fight against HIV. Recently researchers successfully cured an HIV patient with stem cell therapy. Although stem cell therapy is not accessible to most people, this ring will be accessible to all women and they can insert it themselves.

With the legalization of sex work in many countries as a recognized profession, we are also bound to see women in these lines of work operating more confidently. One has to wonder if the fear of contracting HIV has been contributing to the rate at which the virus has been spreading. Will the spread of HIV be curbed if people start being more sexually active on the assumption that the ring will protect them? The ring is after all 35% effective.

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The patient was being treated for acute myeloid leukaemia (cancer of the blood and bone marrow) when she received a stem cell transplant. The donor also happened to have a natural resistance to the HIV virus.

A small proportion of humans show partial or apparently complete inborn resistance to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It is estimated that the proportion of people with some form of resistance to HIV is under 10%.

The woman is the third person to be cured of HIV but the first using umbilical cord stem cells. The other known cases were males, one white and one Latino. They had received adult stem cells which are more frequently used in bone marrow transplants.

Since receiving the cord blood the woman has been free of HIV for 14 months without the need for antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.

Unfortunately, experts say the transplant method used is too risky to be suitable for most people with HIV. All three patients that have been cured needed stem cell transplants to save their lives. Curing their HIV was a positive but unplanned outcome.

Although the treatment cannot be used on everyone, these findings confirm that it is possible to find a cure for HIV. So far, the main hopes of a cure remain focused on vaccines or drugs that can flush the virus out of the body.

According to National HIV Survey (ZIMPHIA 2020), 1.23 million adults in Zimbabwe were living with the HIV virus. This is an indicator that HIV affects a lot of people in Zimbabwe. A few years ago being diagnosed with HIV meant certain death in 1 or 2 years. Now ARVs and lifestyle changes give people a close to normal life expectancy. This new discovery gives people living with the virus hope for themselves and for those with loved ones living with the HIV virus.

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An estimated 38 million people are living with HIV worldwide, about 1.2 million of whom are in the United States, according to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS and the CDC. There are approximately 1.5 million HIV transmissions globally each year, including about 37,000 new U.S. cases.

An international research team has identified a highly virulent and infectious strain of HIV that has infected more than 100 people.

More on the strain

A new super-mutant HIV strain that makes infected individuals ill twice as fast as current versions of the virus has been detected in the Netherlands. The earliest evidence of this strain (also known as the VB variant) was in an individual diagnosed with HIV in 1992. It would then spread silently in the Netherlands for decades and signs suggest this strain might not have spread much outside the Netherlands.

The strain damages the immune system and weakens a person’s ability to fight everyday infections and disease faster than previous versions of the virus. It means those who catch this strain could develop AIDS more quickly.

Left untreated, this viral strain leads to a much higher level of virus in the blood and a doubled rate of decline in key immune cells compared with the typical HIV disease progression. The highly virulent HIV strain would likely develop AIDS within just two to three years of diagnosis

The research team, led by scientists at the University of Oxford with key contributions from Stichting HIV Monitoring in Amsterdam, has stressed that these findings are not cause for alarm. This particular HIV strain responds well to antiretroviral treatment, which has the added benefit of blocking transmission.

While the strain could still be transmitting to new people, once someone with the strain starts treatment, it is not associated with an increased risk of illness or death. After starting treatment, those with the variant have a similar immune system recovery and survival rate to those infected with other HIV strains. Researchers warned the rapid health decline after catching VB means early detection and treatment is ‘critical’.

According to a national HIV survey (ZIPHIA) in 2020, the rate of annual new HIV infections among adults in Zimbabwe is 0.38 percent (0.54 percent among women and 0.20 percent among men) or approximately 31,000 persons over a year.

The prevalence of HIV among adults was 12.9 percent, which corresponds to approximately 1.23 million adults in Zimbabwe living with HIV in 2020. Generally, the survey found that HIV prevalence was higher among women than men (15.3 percent vs. 10.2 percent).

With such news and information at hand, it is encouraged that people get tested at least once a year to know your status and get early treatment should the need arise.

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The International AIDS Society HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) presented positive results on their HIV studies at a virtual conference in the beginning of 2021. Clinical trials on a developing HIV vaccine were carried out in order to test the effectiveness of the vaccine. The vaccine successfully produced rare immune cells that are needed in the generation of antibodies that protect the body from the virus.

A professor and immunologist at Scripps Research and executive director of vaccine design at IAVI’s Neutralizing Antibody Center, whose laboratory developed the vaccine, Wiliam Schief, PHD, shared the following remarks:

“This study demonstrates proof of principle for a new vaccine concept for HIV, a concept that could be applied to other pathogens, as well. With our many collaborators on the study team, we showed that vaccines can be designed to stimulate rare immune cells with specific properties, and this targeted stimulation can be very efficient in humans. We believe this approach will be key to making an HIV vaccine and possibly important for making vaccines against other pathogens.”

These successful test results have now laid the foundation for more clinical tests to be carried out on the vaccine.The additional tests are aimed at ensuring that the vaccine is refined and to extend the approach of the long-term goal of creating a safe and effective HIV vaccine.

Julie McElrath, MD, PhD, senior vice president and director of Fred Hutch’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division confidently referred to this achievement as a “landmark” in the research being carried out on HIV vaccines and vaccines in general. She highlighted that this was indeed a huge step in the development of neutralising antibodies against HIV-1. It is anticipated this success will inevitably accelerate the progress of the HIV-vaccine creation.

What are your thoughts on these findings?

Let us know in the comment section below.

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