HIV survey gets nod

Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
THE Zimbabwe national HIV survey, which started last week, is receiving a positive response from communities with households that are not covered in the study crying foul over exclusion, a senior Government official has said. Head of Aids and TB Unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Owen Mugurungi said the Zimbabwe Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (ZIMPHIA) has not faced any major challenges so far.

“So far so good. According to our preliminary report, people have welcomed the door to door approach such that those who are not on the selected households also want to take part,” said Dr Mugurungi. He said Government will consider their concerns and see how it can extend other services from the survey to all those interested in door-to-door health services provision.

Dr Mugurungi said the survey started in hard to reach areas like Mbire in Mashonaland Central to cover ground before the rainy season. He said teams are also expected to go to Binga next week.

“Traditionally, these areas become impassible once the rainy season begins,” he said.

Dr Mugurungi said the survey started later than the scheduled dates due to some logistical challenges, but said all was now in place.

Zimphia is a door-to-door national HIV and Aids survey meant to ascertain the burden of HIV in the country and assess the impact of interventions rolled out so far.

Officially launched last month, Zimphia is the first of its kind in Zimbabwe and the Sadc region.

It is targeting a sample size of 15 000 households randomly selected from all the 10 provinces.

About 30 000 people randomly selected are also expected to go through voluntary counselling and testing for HIV and syphilis by the end of the programme.

The study will take six months.

The findings will be used to inform social services planning in line with the Zim-Asset.

According to the country’s yearly estimates on HIV, the HIV burden continues to decrease with latest statistics showing a fall in national new infections and the number of children getting infected through mother to child transmission.

The country’s prevalence rate, however, remained static at 15 percent.