270, 000 condoms distributed in Solwezi

IN bid to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, Solwezi Municipal Council has distributed over 270,000 male condoms from January to December this year.

This came to light during the commemoration of this year’s World AIDS Day which was commemorated under the theme ‘ Communities making a difference –pressing towards ending AIDS’. Solwezi Mayor, Nicholas Mukumbi, stated that the local authority would continue to supplement Government efforts in the fight against the HIV/AIDS.

“As a municipality, we are committed to the fighting HIV/ AIDS, and this is evidenced by the creation of the section at the civic centre which coordinates all HIV/AIDS activities in the district,” he said.

Mr Mukumbi said that apart from condom distribution, the local authority was also involved in the dissemination of awareness massages in public places.

He urged other stakeholders to join hands in the fight against the scourge.

The mayor however appealed to Government to train more community health workers to provide decentralized services for treatment and care.

And officiating at the same event, North western province Deputy Permanent Secretary, Douglas Ngimbu, said that the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the province was currently standing at 6.9 percent.

He said that out of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the country, about 1,028,016 were on Anti-Retroviral Therapy.

“And it is the duty of all us here to support adherence become their treatment buddies,” he said. Mr Ngimbu said Government has launched an overarching Zambia Ending AIDS campaign to help accelerate sub-population tailored HIV prevention interventions particularly among adolescents and other key populations.

Mr. Mukumbi’s components of the campaign were condom programming, treatment and a relatively new Pre-Exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) available especially for key populations at substantial risk of HIV infections.

He also said in order to increase the uptake of testing services, Government has introduced HIV self-testing kits which could be used away from health facilities.