By Edward Makuzva
Zimbabwe (News of The South) – Aids Council (NAC), CEO, Dr Bernard Madzima, said Zimbabwe’s national response has improved over the years on the strength of global solidarity and shared responsibility, and out of the estimated 1,3 million people living with HIV, nearly 1,2 million are on treatment.
Speaking at the World Aids Day(WAD) commemorations in the Capital on Tuesday, Dr Madzima said the Day usually commemorated in the open sorrounded by Happy people who share in the goal to reduce the burden of HIV in the country.
He added that NAC regards this day as a climax of our annual efforts together with our partners in the work to reduce the overall burden of HIV in Zimbabwe.
Dr Madzima highlighted that the Council deployed resources of various kinds, financial , human and technical in support of the Covid-19 response.
He said the greater part of the support was on activities integrating HIV and COVID 19, with a huge focus on awareness, prevention and ensuring access to treatment for ARV clients who faced distruptions during the lockdown.
Dr Madzima added that the HIV prevalence rate has been declining over the years from 13,79% in 2015 to 12,78% in 2019. Prevalence has also fallen from 0.62% in 2016 to 0.49% in 2019 taking us closer to achieve the 90-90-90 targets.
The percentage of people living with HIV who know their status has already reached 90%, while treatment coverage is over 90%.
” Current HIV estimates projects that 20 000 Zimbabweans will be infected by HIV in 2020. Truncating this number and achieving the entire 90-90-90 targets and the eventual ending of HIV by 2030 requires bold leadership and we are alive to that requirement as the coordinator.
” In this regard Zimbabwe has targeted to reduce new HIV infections by 80% by 2025, reduce AIDS deaths by 2025 and to attain zero HIV stigma and discrimination.
” Now that the 90-90-90 targets are within grasp we now have to aim the 95-95-95 as we position ourselves for epidemic control.
” To achieve this we have to make strategic adjustments some of which we are already implementing particularly shifting from a national level planning approach to district responses micro -targeting locations and populations based on evidence.
“This includes scalling up services for most at risk and key populations such as sex workers, prisoners, adolescent girls and young women
and others from where the bulk of new infections are coming”, Dr Madzima explained.
The NAC CEO added that the national response has faced a number of severe challenges, which have militated against our ability to achieve results.
He highlighted that the funding from AIDS levy has been affected by economic performance.
Dr Madzima said the Levy has always been far below funding requirements of the national response, creating a strong case for additional domestic and global resources in line with our theme.
This year’s the World AIDS Day commemorations are guided by the theme ” Global solidarity shared responsibility”.
The day is commemorated on the 1st of December every year and has become engraved on the calendar of the national response.
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