adminsupporting people who are living with the pandemic. Speaking at the launch of ZAN Taskforce, Dr Stamps urged members to strike a balance when it comes to implementing programmes that aim to fight the deadly disease.
“As you go on to revamp this organisation, I urge you to seek to prevent HIV infection instead of concentrating on the already infected because as we are only assisting the infected, someone somewhere is being infected with the virus. We have concentrated more on issues to do with CD4 counts and ARVs rather than prevention. We should look for the source and root cause of the problem, prevention is more difficult but it is more important,” he said.
The network said it would soon embark on a programme to re-align its activities to address challenges that were encountered in the past two years. Dr Stamps said there was a need for the task-force to get feedback from young people who are more vulnerable to the disease in the country.
“There is need to listen to the feedback from young people when they tell us the challenges they face, so that we can deal with those problems. Young people today are influenced by television and pornographic materials so there is need to help them with ways to resist such influence,” he said.
The ZAN board chairperson, Dr Vumani Magezi, said his organisation was facing numerous challenges owing to the flight of donors.
Online Reporter