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The development might cripple the provision of treatment services to the estimated 1,3 million people that are living with HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe.
Speaking during the National Aids Council (NAC) media capacity building workshop that ended in Kwekwe on Friday, NAC director of finance Mr Albert Manenji said the country could soon be thrown into a crisis if concerted measures were not taken.
“The largest supporter of our Hiv/Aids support programmes is the donor community.
“Given the recession in the developed countries most donors are pulling out support,” said Mr Manenji.
“For 2012 alone we have a deficit of $39 million and if donors pull out anytime there is a risk that some patients will not receive treatment.
“There is a huge funding gap, which might affect the supply of drugs and access to treatment.
“At the moment we only have ARVs stocks worth $6 million of which $3 million of that supply is from local manufacturers.
“We also procure drugs from India because of procurement regulations since drugs are relatively cheaper there.”
Mr Manenji said concerted efforts were needed to prevent new HIV infections and called for sustainable use of available resources in the prevention and provision of treatment services.
“There is a need to invest more on prevention services if we are to win the war against HIV/Aids.
“Most problems we are experiencing today are a result of prevention failure in the past years. Prevention is less costly than treatment,” he said.
Mr Manenji said although the National Aids Trust Fund, commonly known as Aids Levy, collections were on the increase, the funding was not enough as only 30 percent of the economically active population was contributing.
Aids levy is charged on individuals, companies and trusts at a rate of three percent of the amount of income tax assessed.
When the country introduced the multiple currency system in 2009, a total of $5,7 million Aids Levy was collected. The inflows grew to about $20 million in 2010 and $26,4 million last year.
Said Mr Manenji: “For the last three years the $52 million we collected was used for various interventions such as prevention, care and support, community home-based care, mitigation, behaviour change, advocacy, information and communication.”
He said the total number of people requiring ART in Zimbabwe was 503 678 adults above 15 years and 89 490 children under 15 years of age.
Mr Manenji said the number of patients in need of ART had also increased over the years from 350 000 in 2009 to 503 000 in 2010 and 593 168 last year.
“The overall ART coverage in 2011 was 78,1 percent.
“However, this coverage remains below the universal access target of 80 percent more so for the paediatric age group which is at 45 percent,” he said.
Mr Manenji underscored the need to come up with alternative funding strategies and the broadening up of Aids Levy collection from the 70 percent of the working class that are not contributing.
“If the economy continues to improve as demonstrated by the collections . . . , supported by the catchment areas particularly the informal sector that is employing 70 percent of the productive population of the country the fund may soon take the lead as the provider of the bulk of the resources,” he said.
“There is also a need for the strengthening of public private partnerships and the lobbying of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to also have a hand.”
Online Reporter