By Nyasha Mutena.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) In a move that seeks to eradicate the HIV pandemic by 2030, Zimbabwe Population Based HIV Impact Assessment 2020 (ZIMPHIA), led by the Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Health and Child Care and other partners will avail HIV services to over 12 000 households that were randomly selected across all ten provinces.
Speaking at the National Sensitization meeting held today, Regional Project Director For The Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (PHIA, Ms Blanche Pitt commended the government for the effort it has professed in fighting HIV/AIDS.
“I commend the government and all Health service departments for their efforts in trying to eradicate the HIV pandemic, indeed this fight will not be successful without them,” said Ms Blanche.
Director of AIDS and TB unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Owen Mugurungi said Zimbabwe has made remarkable strides in HIV programming as a result of hard work and commitment.
Zimbabwe has over the years made significant milestones in HIV programming. Our national prevalence rate has drastically come down from a high of 29% in 1999 to the current 14.1% amongst the adult population.
“The incidence rate, that is, number of new HIV infections has gone down from 1.03% in 2010 to 0.42% in 2016. This truly is remarkable progress and we owe it to ourselves and the hard work and dedication that we have produced over the years,” said Dr Mugurungi.
Dr Mugurungi applauded results of ZIMPHIA 2015-2016 which revealed the progress the country was making with regards to the HIV/AIDS situation.
“According to the ZIMPHIA 2015-2016 survey results, in Zimbabwe 77% of people living with HIV knew their status, 88% of those people were on treatment, and 85% of those people on treatment were virally suppressed.
“ZIMPHIA 2015-2016 showed significant progress towards reaching the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets by 2020 and the global target to end AIDS by 2030,” he said.
He went on to say that Zimbabweans should embrace this initiative as it seeks to examine the HIV situation by assessing the coverage and impact of HIV services at the population level and measuring the HIV-related risk behaviors using a nationally representative sample.
Speaking on behalf of NAC Acting CEO Mr Albert Manenji, National Data Modelling and M and E Coordinator Mr Isaac Taramusi said conducting a survey of this magnitude is very challenging hence the PHIA initiative will help to make sure all the health care providers involved will account for their efforts.
The ZIMPHIA was first launched in 2015-2016 with the purpose of assessing the coverage and impact of HIV services at the population level and to measure HIV related risk behaviors using a nationally representative sample.
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