Assessment of Attitudes and Practices Towards Condoms for Hiv Prevention Among Christians in Shinyanga, Tanzania

ABSTRACT:
Background: Condom use is a critical element in a comprehensive, effective and sustainable approach to HIV prevention and treatment.  Objectives: This Study aimed at assessing the attitudes and Practices towards Condom use for HIV Prevention among Christians in Shinyanga, Tanzania Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted among Christians in Shinyanga Region, Tanzania Study population; The study population involved Christians attending Christian churches in Shinyanga during data collection. Results: About 73.1% of Married Christians are having sex out of Marriage and 55.1% of unmarried Christians are having sex before Marriage. About 52.8 % of all Christians having sex are using Condoms and 50 % of Married Christians having sex out of Married are using Condoms.

Conclusions: Since Christians are having sex before and outside Marriage, the Church should give Christians a chance of choice of using condom as a toll for reducing the spread of HIV .

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Condom use is a critical element in a comprehensive, effective and sustainable approach to HIV prevention and treatment. Prevention is the mainstay of the response to AIDS.  Condoms are an integral and essential part of comprehensive prevention and care programmes, and their promotion must be accelerated based on scientific grounds. In 2007, an estimated 2.7 million people became newly infected with HIV. About 45% of them were young people from 15 to 24 years old, with young girls at greater risk of infection than boys. The male latex condom is the single, most efficient, available technology to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. The search for new preventive technologies such as HIV vaccines and microbicides continues to make progress, but condoms will remain the key preventive tool for many, many years to come. Condoms are a key component of combination prevention strategies individuals can choose at different times in their lives to reduce their risks of sexual exposure to HIV. These include delay of sexual initiation, abstinence, being safer by being faithful to one’s partner when both partners are uninfected and consistently faithful, reducing the number of sexual partners, correct and consistent use of condoms and male circumcision (UNA Zambia.IDS 2004).

Christianity plays a central role in constructing and maintaining this dichotomy, both in Zambia and in the United States; over 90% of Zambians identify as Christian and the preamble to the country’s constitution states that Zambia is a Christian nation. In the United States, Christianity provides a number of mechanisms to underwrite abstinence and to support people who abstain in their identity as abstainers—theological texts, biblical interpretations, youth rallies, weighty traditions, and ethical arguments. These mechanisms do not merely reinforce this identity in the United States.

Kristin Dunkle, a behavioral scientist at The Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, collaborated with colleagues from Emory and San Francisco to explore this very question in Zambia. Their findings were published in July 2008 in Lancet. Dunkle and her colleagues analyzed data from demographic and health surveys conducted on 2,279 residents of Lusaka, Zambia and found that the vast majority (between 55% and 92%) of new infections in Lusaka occur in long-term serodiscordant relationships. The researchers estimate that voluntary HIV testing for long-term married or cohabitating serodiscordant couples accompanied by counseling on risk reduction and condom use would reduce the annual incidence rate of new infections from 20% to 7%. This simple intervention would prevent between 35% and 60% of all new HIV infections in Lusaka. Kristin Dunkle and her colleagues have demonstrated the limits of “ABC” prevention and offer a simple, realistic model that could drastically impact HIV transmission rates in The Group acknowledged that Christians are having sex outside or before Marriage   and this is accounted to the fact that human beings are always making mistakes and the Church struggles to teach Christians about Lawful and Unlawful sexual practices. It’s the Church’s believe that if Human being Practices what is called Lawful Sex (Sex only by only lawfully Married Couple) HIV will not be spread and People would have avoided the consequences of sin. There is a big Challenge to establish whether those Christians who in spite of God’s message on ‘Though shall not commit adultery’ still decide to have sex outside or before Marriage however to some extent the Church perhaps should agree on using a Condom for example in situations where one partner is Positive and Another is negative in a Lawful Marriage.. but yet the religious leaders opposes the use of Condoms by Christians.

PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RATIONALE

Despite of Much HIV reduction success stories from Uganda, Thailand, Cambodia, Brazil and many other countries where condoms use have shown significant reduction in HIV Prevention, Christian Religious leaders have  been opposing overwhelming Promotion of Condoms as a method of HIV Prevention. There are several questions about Christian and Condoms. There has been a very strong Spiritual apprehensiveness in as far as integrating the Condoms in Religious approaches towards the fight against HIV/AIDS. The place of the condom in the Church/Christian community has not been very clear. The Condom has often been related to Promiscuity and this has cast a dart shadow on its significance in prevention of HIV infections and other STIs. (World Vision)  This study will explore the attitudes towards condoms and Condom Practices among Christians in Shinyanga region, it will generate information on whether Christians are using condoms and compare to what their religious leaders opposes.

STUDY QUESTIONS

The  Study Project aimed at  answering the following Questions:

1. Are Christians having sex outside or before marriage?
2. Do Christians believe that condoms protects against HIV?
3. Are Christians using Condoms for HIV Prevention?
4. Are Christians agreeing on Church allowing use of Condoms?

STUDY OBJECTIVES

Overall Study Project objective:  The overall objectives of this study was to  assess the attitudes and Practices towards Condom use for HIV Prevention among Christians.

The specific Objectives were:

1. Assessing whether Christians are having sex before or outside of Marriage
2. Assessing the attitudes towards condom among Christians
3. Assessing the Practices towards condoms among Christians
4. Assessing Christian perspective on  Church allowing use of  condoms

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