Married men, leading clients to sex workers
Alphonse Rutazigwa
Married men are leading frequent clients to female sex workers and less frequently use condoms with additional sexual partners, reports say.
The 2019 report on Behavioural and Biological Surveillance Survey Among Female Sex Workers, yet to be released, shows that 53 percent of clients of female sex workers are married men.
The trend of married men frequently having sex with female sex workers has decreased from nearly 70 percent according to the 2010 report.
Dr Eric Remera the Director of Research and Surveillance Unit at Rwanda Biomedical Centre commented that though the trend may not necessarily mean that men spread STIs more than women in marriage, it pauses the risk of STIs.
“We assume that if these men do not care about protected sex when the STIs prevalence among female sex workers is higher than in the general population, it pauses risk of infections,” he told fezaa.com on Wednesday 24th August 2022.
Meanwhile, 2015 Demographic and Health Survey reported that nearly 70 per cent of men do not use condoms when having sexual intercourse with other sexual partners.
This may mean, leaving other factors constant, that married men spread HIV and other STIs to their sexual partners more than women.
The 2019 Rwanda Population Based HIV Impact Assessment shows that men above 40 prefer having sexual intercourse with young women below 24.
The same report shows that HIV prevalence among young women below 24 is more than among.
Jean Pierre Ayingoma, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at Rwanda NGOs forum for HIV/AIDs and Health Promotion told fezaa.com that there is a great need for data on married men’s behaviour in order to analyse the population that keeps STIs alive in the population.
However, single men who seek sexual intercourse with female sex workers have hiked from 13 percent in 2010 to 51 percent in 2019.
“We need more data on the behaviour of married men, especially with female sex workers and the level at which they use condoms,” Ayingoma said.
Aids prevalence in Rwanda has been consistent at three percent since the early 2000s however has changed among female sex workers from 51 percent in 2010 to 35 percent in the recent report of 2019.
