Zimbabwean truck drivers who frequent prostitutes when they work in neighbouring Mozambique are at high risk of catching the deadly virus that causes Aids because they are ”forced” to have unprotected sex, state television reported Friday.
Several drivers interviewed by Mozambique Television (TVM) in the central province of Manica, which borders Zimbabwe, said the prostitutes never want them to use condoms and that they were forced to have unprotected sex.
”After being away from home for a long time we end up having sex with them unprotected”, said one driver who asked not to be named. Another Zimbabwean driver said ”prostitutes here would hardly accept sexual intercourse with a condom, therefore we face the risk of HIV infections”.
TVM said the Manica town of Catandica, in the central district of Barrue, is the most frequented by prostitutes because many foreign truck drivers, including Malawians and Zambians, pass through on their way to the port city of Beira.
Catandica has the highest infection rate of HIV/Aids in Mozambique. Meanwhile, Zimbabwean prostitutes, who have been hard hit by the economic crisis at home, are reportedly flooding into the central Mozambican province.
One prostitute told a local newspaper ”the market here is good and Mozambicans do not hesitate to pay”. – Sapa-AFP