The Sunday Mail
Rumbidzayi Zinyuke – Senior Health Reporter
Population Solutions for Health (PSH) formerly PSI Zimbabwe in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) has
launched an HIV treatment literacy campaign named “Flip the Script”.
The initiative is being rolled out in three districts namely, Nyabira in Mashonaland West, Luveve in Bulawayo and Marange in Manicaland
and will run for a period of two years.
Flip the Script seeks to address the negative perceptions associated with Anti-Retroviral Treatment amongst people living with HIV and the
broader community in pursuit of increasing the overall viral suppression rate in Zimbabwe.
Building on insights from research conducted with people living with HIV, Healthcare workers and Influencers of people living with HIV in
Zimbabwe, the branded campaign has employed a marketing strategy including a core set of messages that convey the benefits of
antiretroviral therapy (ART) to people living with HIV (PLHIV), the healthcare system, and the broader community. This strategy and
messages have formed the basis of tailored campaigns that will complement current national efforts to build sustained demand for ART
and align with key national and regional priorities.
Speaking at the launch of the campaign at Nyabira Clinic, PSH Marketing Campaigns Manager Mr. Nigel Kunaka said the initiative
sought to articulate the benefits of HIV treatment in a more consumerfriendly and compelling manner.
“The key thing we are seeking to do is to reposition ART as an enabler. Most of the time we have heard people saying HIV is a death sentence
and that ARV treatment reminds them of their HIV status while some are afraid of the stigma associated with taking the medication which
results in ‘social death’, so people do not want to be seen collecting their medication.
“Flip the Script is trying to address this by letting people know that they are still able to live the life they want by taking their medication today and every day. We are saying ‘today and every day’ because we are emphasising on adherence. Ultimately, we want to improve the viral suppression rates across the nation,” he said.
He said virally suppressed people had a better quality of life and were able to continue living a healthy life, do the things that they were doing
before diagnosis and even HIV negative children.
The Flip the Script campaign also has a mass media element to it, with adverts running under the banner “I Can”.
Apart from the mass media element which is already running, PSH also has community-based interventions that seek to capacitate clinicians on how to articulate the benefits of viral suppression and help people understand the concept itself as it is too technical.
Ministry of Health and Child Care AIDS and TB unit advocacy and communications officer Mr. Brian Nachipo said ownership of the
campaign belonged to the communities where all stakeholders had to find a way to support and play a role.
“Flip the Script believes in integration with existing structures and programs to ensure sustainability of whatever interventions we are
introducing. This is why the project will work with cadres who are already working in the local community,” he said.
He said the initiative was a chance to have local community members help others who have been recently diagnosed or who are struggling
with adherence by providing positive peer support.
During the launch, Nyabira Clinic Sister in charge Dadirai Bwanya said the clinic was servicing a population of 13 823 people of which 1 015
were on ART.
“We started ART initiation in 2010 at Nyabira clinic but before that, Banket hospital would provide that service. Some of our clients would
come for those outreaches but some missed them and had to travel to Banket to get their ARV medication resulting in many people with high
viral loads as some failed to travel to Banket citing transport costs,” she said.
The clinic has since initiated the ‘treat all’ programme where people are started on ART immediately after diagnosis and then check their viral load after six months.
“However, the challenge we are seeing is that of adherence. Many people are not taking their medication religiously, others talk about
distance from hospital and others are not disclosing their status, especially to their partners. We also have a challenge on behaviour
change, the use of condoms is low,” said Sister Bwanya.
Behaviour Change Community motivator Mr Rangani Masindi said the Flip the Script programme was a good initiative as it would help to
address issues they meet during their engagements with the community.
“We work with boys and men from 10 years and we mainly discuss issues around HIV and AIDS and we encourage them to appreciate
seeking medical assistance. We have seen that men generally have bad health-seeking behaviours and where we see a need we have referred
them to the clinic for HIV testing but some do not go.
“Those who do go for testing have reported that they face challenges in disclosing their status to their families. They are afraid of the stigma surrounding disclosing their status so we see some of these people defaulting on
their treatment,” he said.
Also part of the campaign was Zvimba East legislator Tawanda Tungamirai who encouraged adherence to ART.
“We want to continue telling the people that HIV can live with HIV, that they don’t have to die of AIDs. If you take your medication religiously, you will not die. We have a lot of people living with HIV but one can never tell by just looking at them because they are adhering to their treatment.
We are having challenges in the farms because when young people want to get married, they do not disclose their status to each other and they end up defaulting.
They are unknowingly putting themselves and their lives in danger. They need to be educated so that
they know that if the viral load is suppressed, they can live. This is not a disease that we should keep stigmatising each other over,” he said.
The integration of community health workers, community art refill group leaders, pastors, traditional leaders among other key members of
the communities is expected to increase the impact of the campaign.
