Infection at the wheel
Barstad, S.
Journalen Sykepleien 81(9): 20
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0802-9776 PMID: 8507527 Document Number: 336035
The project Truckstop started in 1989 in Tanzania, and Mamma Chuma or Anna Oladia was among the first people to enlist. She has a bar and a guest house for long-haul truck drivers where she provides information and stocks supplies of condoms for them. The African Medical and Research Foundation was responsible for the project. Seven truckstops were established and 25 instructors, including Mamma Chuma, became involved. Most instructors are bar owners, and the others are service women. A senior health behavior officer at AMREF recounts that truck drives were known to a major source of infection; they were heeding neither local education campaigns nor information from the radio. Bar owners and other instructors were educated about how HIV infects and how to communicate this fact while convincing the truck drivers to use condoms. Theater and songs also communicate the message. Every month the instructors also send reports to AMREF. The project was evaluated in the fall of 1992 and it showed that condom use had increased from 50% to 91% among women and from 54% to 74% among drivers. Especially the older drivers were skeptical about using condoms, but they changed their minds during the 3-year period. There are more of them who do not run to prostitutes or who seek information and condoms. Prostitutes continue to consent to intercourse without condoms albeit at double the price. The choice between the risk of a deadly disease and an extra 300 shillings is often difficult when money is sorely needed.