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Precious Manomano Herald Reporter
Zimbabwe is experiencing a significant decline in new HIV infections but commitment among citizens is required for a further reduction in new cases, the National Aids Council has said.
National Aids Council chief executive officer Dr Bernard Madzima said the country has made significant strides in curbing HIV pandemic attributing the decline to collective efforts from government and partners.
“Zimbabwe HIV programmes has done very well in terms of bringing down the number for new HIV infections. The prevalence or the new cases have fallen from around 0,49 percent a decade ago to 0,12 percent as of 2018 so we have done very well in terms of our prevention programmes,” he said.
It is estimated that at least one million Zimbabweans are on antiretroviral treatment.
Dr Madzima said the council was working towards ensuring that key populations are catered for in all HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“We are now targeting what we call key populations, these are groups of individuals who because of their characteristics have been left behind in terms of HIV prevention, the sex workers, inmates, artisanal miners and adolescent girls, these groups have higher percentage of HIV compared to other population,” said Dr Madzima.
The country recently met the 90-90-90 targets, which seek to ensure that 90 percent of people living with HIV know their status, 90 percent who are HIV positive are on anti-retroviral treatment and 90 percent on treatment are achieving viral suppression.
Dr Madzima also said significant strides were also met in scaling up prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV with 93 percent of pregnant women now accessing services. These stop mothers infecting their children before and during birth.
Dr Madzima is concerned about the other 7 percent who are not seeking services from clinics, hospitals or their own doctors.
“Mother to child transmission is still above 5 percent and we still want the mothers to be booked early for antenatal care so that they are tested for HIV and are given treatment.
“We want the testing to be done before the pregnancy, during pregnancy and soon after they deliver. We do not want to miss any loophole. The next target is to have less than 5 percent of mother to child transmission of HIV, at the moment we are around 7 percent,” he said. Ministry of Health and Child Care has also launched a national validation committee to manage and monitor the spread of HIV to the unborn babies.
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