adminPaidamoyo Chipunza Health Reporter
Government is confident that a new policy expected to see people living with HIV initiated on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) much earlier than before will take off this month.Head of Aids and Tuberculosis Unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Owen Mugurungi on Monday said Government was finalising logistics on implementing the new policy.
“We are working on a few logistical issues but once that is sorted out, we should be able to roll out treatment as recommended by WHO in its 2013 guidelines,” Dr Mugurungi said.
According to the guidelines, all HIV positive people whose CD4 count is 500 cells and below should immediately start treatment while couples in situations where one partner is negative should also be initiated on ARVs.
Zimbabwe committed itself to initiating treatment to HIV positive pregnant women irrespective of their CD4 count status and all children below the age of five.
People who are infected with both HIV and TB would also receive priority treatment.
“We are hopeful that before the end of the month we should be able to start the rollout,” he said.a
Dr Mugurungi said HIV positive pregnant women were being given ARVs irrespective of their CD4 count. According to the national HIV and Aids estimates for 2011, 1more than 1,2 million people are living with HIV and Aids. An estimated 476 000 people were receiving ART as of 2011.
Of those on ART, 436 181 were adults while 39 825 were children. The national estimates also revealed that 60 percent of all people on ART are females.
The majority of people (76 percent) on ART were funded by partners largely the Global Fund to Fight HIV and Aids, which supported 35 percent of the national Aids programme.
Online Reporter