The Sunday Mail
Catherine Murombedzi
WE are a decade away from 2030.Why is the year important? UNAIDS says it has to be the year by which the world marks the end of Aids.
So is ending Aids by 2030 possible?
This is food for thought for people living with HIV.
More importantly, it is food for thought for HIV negative people as they strive to maintain that status.
According to the Zimbabwe Population living with HIV Impact Assessment (ZIMPHIA) 2018, the country’s HIV incidence stands at 0,42 percent.
With 1,2 million people living with HIV in Zimbabwe, 200 000 are children under the age of 15.
About 900 000 are adults, with 53 percent of them being women.
Prevention remains the cornerstone to ending Aids by 2030.
The prevention message needs drumming up as was the case in the early 2000s when the nation “lived prevention” and “slept prevention”.
However, funding from the Global Fund is decreasing, with the world’s focus shifting to other areas.
“We cannot afford to have new HIV infections when HIV is competing for dwindling resources with non communicable diseases and other global phenomena like climate change.
“We have to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030,” said the UN Country Director to Zimbabwe, Dr Martin Odiit during World Aids Day commemorations recently held in Mucheke, Masvingo.
Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in commemorating World Aids Day, which is held annually on December 1.
The theme for 2019 was: “Communities make the difference.”
Dr Odiit explained that by 2030, HIV and Aids should be treated like any other medical condition, hence the urgent need to get to zero new HIV infections.
“On visiting a health facility globally by 2030, HIV will be treated like any condition. lt will be a generalised condition, hence the need to zero in on new infections,” he said.
Guest of honour and medical expert Dr Tapiwa Makurira applauded the country for having registered significant progress in dealing with HIV.
“We have come far as a country, we have had challenging times, we sat down and came up with home-grown funding to complement the Global Fund.
“Although the fund still needs to grow, it was a starting point. Global Fund has eased the pandemic to manageable levels. As the Global Fund assistance wanes, we need to have adequate domestic funding,” said Dr Makurira. In 2000, Zimbabwe introduced the Aids Levy through the National Trust Fund (NATF).
The levy taxes 3 percent of an individual’s income, which is pooled to a fund run by the National AIDS Council.
