New HIV infections reduce – Minister
NEW infections of HIV in the country have reduced because of positive political will and an environment which has changed the way people look at the epidemic, Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya said in Lusaka yesterday. Dr Chilufya said Government was happy with strides made towards the reduction of new HIV infections across the country, adding that the country in collaboration with other stakeholders, remained committed to ensuring that HIV cases dropped even further. Dr Chilufya said this yesterday at the official opening of a three-day Health Research Conference under the theme “Breaking new ground in health research: moving from results to implementation-without leaving anyone behind.” He said the Ministry of Health had also made progress to ensure that more people were tested for HIV and were treated once they were found positive. He said Zambia was firmly on course to attain the fast track UNAIDS target 90 90 90 and it had since escalated HIV response to ensure that no one was left behind. He disclosed that statistics of the people being tested had increased from 70 percent to the current 86 percent. Huge strides had been made in the Prevention from Mother to Child Transmission (PMTC) from 15 percent to 6 percent, he said. He said it was the ministry’s goal to ensure that Syphilis and HIV in new born children were eliminated in order to reduce the level of transmission. “The Ministry of Health through national strategic plan framework has put mechanism that has brought the community on board, building a coalition of partners from Non Governmental Organizations, Civil society Organizations, traditional leaders and various leading key partners, therefore all these interventions will be achieved through the effective use of the community health approach,” Dr Chilufya said. Meanwhile, UNAIDS representative Dr Kenneth Mwansa disclosed that nearly 9,000 people in Zambia were on ART while 300, 000 were still waiting to be put on treatment. Dr Mwansa said Aids was not over in Zambia but that it could be controlled, if people followed precautions.