HIV interventions working H-METRO

IT is awesome to note the wonderful developments around the Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS story.

The Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr John Mangwiro has said the trajectory of HIV infections shows a continued decline for all age groups over the years from 40 900 to 24 900 between 2016 and 2020.

That is great news and it shows that we are doing relatively well in the HIV challenge as a nation.

It is pleasing to note that among adults, the number of new infections has declined by 42,1 percent while in children it declined by 22,4 percent between 2016 and 2020.

Among the 10-19-year age group, infections declined by 44,3 percent and 44,4 percent among the 15-24 years’ age group.

Over and above this, the HIV prevalence rate dropped from 13,9 percent to 11,8 percent during the reporting period.

Also exciting is the fact that, of the 1,3 million HIV positive people in Zimbabwe, 91,9 percent are on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), up from 88 percent in 2015.

That is a huge step towards achieving the 95-95-95 target which calls for 95 percent of people living with HIV to know their status, 95 percent of people living with HIV who know their status to be on ART and 95 percent of people living with HIV ART to achieve viral suppression.

According to the National Aids Council (NAC), Zimbabwe easily achieved the 90-90-90 target on HIV prevention and is now working on the 95-95-95 target for 2025, while the mortality significantly declined by almost 72 percent in the 10 years between 2010 and 2020.

Both the number of infections and people succumbing to HIV related illnesses have declined.

All these achievements, coming despite the fact that the country is grappling to cope with Covid-19, mean the country is doing well to maintain a healthy health delivery system.

The latest serious call must be to get to zero in the fight against HIV and Aids.

Instead of halving or removing certain percentages of new HIV infections, we should always aim for the best possible achievement — to totally get rid of HIV and Aids.

This call has already been made.

This new vision shows the fight against HIV and Aids has now reached a level where the virus and the whole HIV/Aids scourge will soon be a thing of the past.

It will incite the fight against Aids to be fiercer and induce a spirit of belief amongst the stakeholders — which is everyone.

This goal shows that it is possible for Aids to be totally done away with.

Getting to Zero can be achieved if people leave no room for new HIV infections in the way they act from today going forward.

It is clear that abstinence is one such move that can ensure there are no new HIV infections.