The fishing camps dotted around Lake Kariba and have become hotspots for fish for sex which involves sex workers trading sex for fish.

This was said by National Aids Council (NAC) chief executive Bernard Madzima on Monday.

NewsDay reported Madzima as saying the sex for fish trade was hampering efforts to reduce the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.

Madzima noted that prostitution in fishing camps was leading to a new wave of HIV infections as well as sexually-transmitted infections. He said:

In Kariba, fisheries have been identified as hotspots where there is rampant trade of fish for sex.

There is a new phenomenon where sex workers now cohabit with male fishermen in exchange for fish.

As an organisation, we have trained 10 female peer sex workers and 10 male peer fishermen to conduct HIV and AIDS peer education and condom distribution in Kariba where this issue is rampant.
Some of the fishing camps affected by the sex-for-fish practice include Gatshe Gatshe, Ndomo, Musamba, Muchenga in Kariba and Kalulwe, Simatelele and Chibuyu in Binga.

Last year, Zimbabwe became the first African country to approve injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicine to help reduce the rate of new infections.

PrEP is for people who don’t have HIV and are at risk of getting HIV from sex or injection drug use.

According to CDC, injectable PrEP with CAB is highly effective at protecting patients from HIV and is for adults and adolescents who weigh at least 35 kg and are at risk of getting HIV through sex.

The US Embassy in Zimbabwe said that in 2020, 1.23 million adults in Zimbabwe were living with HIV. This constituted 12.9 percent of the adult population.