Another mega event for Zim

Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
Zimbabwe will host this year’s edition of the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) following a successful assessment on the country’s capability to host the continent’s largest Aids gathering.

ICASA president Dr Ihab Ahmed, made the announcement at a Press conference in Harare last night after having a series of meetings with local health officials and visits to the conference facilities since Monday.

He said ICASA was convinced that Zimbabwe had all the facilities to host the high profile meeting come December 2015.

“We are honoured to inform you that your country the Republic of Zimbabwe has been chosen to host the 18th edition of the ICASA, 2015 following ICASA’s board decision taken on the 23rd June 2015 at 11 am local time.

“We would like to express our gratitude to the good people of Zimbabwe and to the head of the African Union, head of Sadc, His Excellency the President Robert Gabriel Mugabe for accepting to host this conference in Harare,” said Dr Ahmed.

He said the conference would take place between November 29 and December 4 this year.

Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa, said Zimbabwe was delighted to host the conference come December. He called on all stakeholders to play their part in making the conference a success.

“This ceases to be an issue of the health Ministry, but is now everyone’s responsibility. Let us all play our part to make sure the conference is a success,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.

He said HIV was still a major public health concern in Africa.

“We hope that we will be able to carry the banner of Africa,” he said.

In Zimbabwe, Dr Parirenyatwa said most affected populations were youths between 15 and 24 years, sex workers, long distant truck drivers and prisoners.

ICASA is the biggest Aids conference in Africa. Earlier in an interview, the conference coordinator Mr Luc Armand Bodea, said the biannual conference said nine countries had submitted their bids to host this year’s event.

“Initially, this conference was supposed to take place in Tunisia, but we had to revoke the hosting rights for several reasons,” said Mr Bodea.

Rwanda and Cote d’Ivoire were some of the countries that had submitted their bids to host the event.

The event brings together between 5 000 and 10 000 delegates.