adminTanaka Mahanya
HIV services, which include prevention and care for children and adolescents, are still lagging behind, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation technical advisor, Hilda Bara, said.
She said there have been some milestones but more needs to be done.
“We have global initiatives and targets that, as Zimbabwe, we have made a commitment to achieve and for us to get to a point where we see an HIV/ AIDS free generation.
“Each of us has a role to play if we are to achieve those global targets.”
She said across the globe, children are disproportionately affected or impacted by HIV and this impact is higher in infants and young children because they depend on adults.
“They are not able to make decisions for themselves and depend on the health seeking behaviour of the adults who are playing the caregiver role in their lives.
“If HIV is not treated, about half of the babies will die before two years and three quarters of them would have died by the age of five,” said Bara.
“This shows that there is a lot of work to do in terms of making sure that undiagnosed HIV in children is figured, and those that are tested positive are initiated for treatment early.
“We have an estimate of 82 000 children that are living with undiagnosed HIV in Zimbabwe who should be initiated for treatment.”
She said one of the activities, which will see Zimbabwe achieving total elimination of HIV, is making sure that all babies, who are considered to be exposed, are tested for HIV by the age of six weeks.
Bongani Ndlovu
Mathew Masinge