New HIV prevention methods on the shelf

A chain of popular clothing stores in Namibia has introduced a customer-service programme to help tackle HIV/AIDS, local newspaper The Namibian reported on Thursday. Jet Stores recently added the provision of Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) for survivors of rape to its list of club benefits. Research shows that people exposed to HIV have a 30 to 40 percent chance of becoming infected if PEP is not administered within 72 hours of exposure. Jet assistant manager for finance, Deppie Immanelha, said all club members and their immediate families would have access to PEP as well as counselling for about US $2 per month. The local Multimedia Campaign on Violence against Women and Children welcomed Jet's initiative and said it was important in view of Namibia's high incidence of violence against women and children.