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to play a more involving active role in the fight against HIV and Aidsso as to fill the void left by major donors like Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the Expanded Support Programme (ESP).
The call was made by prominent gospel musician, Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave on Friday while addressing people gathered at a belated World Aids Day commemoration for Gweru District in the city.
She said all leaders from various sectors of the economy, including religious and community leaders, had a role to play in fighting the HIV pandemic.
“Our call for universal access to treatment is not oblivious of the economic challenges facing the nation. It is simply a call for a think of our priorities and the need to expand our sources of health funding using locally available resources. This is a call to our leadership to make universal access to treatment a reality,” said Zvakavapano-Mashavave.
She said the withdrawal of HIV and Aids funding by organisations such as the MSF and ESP had a negative impact on the country’s fight towards zero levels of new infections and deaths.
Zvakavapano-Mashavave said MSF and ESP were some of the major donors of HIV and Aids programmes, hence their pulling out disturbed march towards total eradication of the pandemic in Zimbabwe.
“Both MSF and ESP have already withdrawn from funding HIV and Aids programmes. The situation is worsened by the Global Fund which announced major cutbacks on committed funds and has cancelled Round 11 applications. These major changes to the funding scenario for HIV and Aids will no doubt worsen the overall burden of the pandemic in the country and in Gweru district as well.”
She said the funding challenges called for strengthened commitment of leadership at all levels. She also encouraged private organisations in the district to continue their support for HIV and Aids interventions in the district.
The district commemorations adopted the national theme: “Getting to zero, that is zero new HIV infections, zero Aids-related deaths and zero discrimination”.
Zvakavapano-Mashavave, who is a National Aids Council (NAC) board member, said the achievement of zero new HIV infections, zero Aids-related deaths and zero discrimination could only be attained through a strong multi-sectoral response.
“NAC as the national coordinating authority should therefore continue to buttress its structures and systems for coordinating, in line with the focus of the new
Zimbabwe National HIV and Aids Strategic Plan, including the attendant monitoring and evaluation system. We must create deliberate systems and structures for people living with HIV to participate in policy, planning, decision making and implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation,” she said.
The new ZNASP is a programme that is focused on high impact results measurable in pursuit of the three zeros expounded in the theme.
It seeks, among other things, to reduce estimated HIV incidence from 0,85 percent in 2009 to 0,43 by 2015.
ZNASP also aims to reduce the percentage of HIV infected infants born to HIV positive mothers from 30 percent in 2009 to less than five percent by 2015.
Lastly, the programme seeks to increase the percentage of people living with HIV who know their sero-status from 37 percent in 2010 to 80 percent by 2015.
Zvakavapano-Mashavave told the gathering that every individual had a role to play in the fight against HIV and Aids.
She urged partners to be faithful to one another and called for more males to go for circumcision and make the attainment of zero levels of new HIV infections a reality.
Meanwhile, former Midlands Governor, Cde Cephas Msipa, revealed that more than 53 000 people in the Midlands Province were receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and of the number 16 000 were in Gweru Urban District.
In his solidarity speech delivered at the same occasion, Cde Msipa said the increase in the number of ART clients was a sign of scaled up national efforts to enhance universal access to HIV treatment.
“The national number of people on treatment has been significantly increasing. We now have over 53 000 clients on ART in Midlands and Gweru District contributes over 16 000,” he said.
Cde Msipa, however, noted that the number of people still to receive ART was still high.
He urged partners and stakeholders in HIV and Aids service to decentralise access of anti-retroviral therapy in order to increase accessibility of treatment.
“The number of those still to be served is very high, but achievable.
“We must engage in an accelerated mode of delivery and decentralisation of anti-retroviral therapy throughout the district so that clients get the drugs close to their homes,” Cde Msipa said.
The former Midlands Governor also urged partners in HIV and Aids services to ensure that HIV and Aids services were available to marginalised groups.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter