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Sunday Mail Reporter
GOVERNMENT will work on adopting new World Health Organisation recommendations on testing and treating HIV, such as earlier initiation of infected people on ARVs.
WHO’s new guidelines call for antiretroviral treatment as soon as a person is diagnosed with HIV, as well as offering pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to people at “significant” risk.
At last week’s International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (ICASA) hosted in Harare, Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa said, “We estimate that in this country there are about 1,5 million people who need treatment … And of those, 847 000 are already on treatment.”
Over 5 000 delegates attened the ICASA indaba which was themed “AIDS in Post 2015 Era: Linking Leadership, Science and Human Rights”.
Dr Parirenyatwa said Zimbabwe had shown the world how far it had gone in the fight against HIV.
“The objective mainly is to say to the world how far has Zimbabwe come, to put Zimbabwe on the map in terms of how we fight HIV; to put ourselves as leaders in terms of domestic resources with our National Aids Trust fund or the Aids Levy.
‘‘That has come out very strongly,” he said.
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