The Sunday News
Musiiwa Munyaradzi, Midlands Correspondent
THE Government has issued more than 50 000 self-testing kits for HIV since August following an overwhelming response and demand during the pilot project.
This is in line with the Government’s approach to meet the 90-90-90 targets. The 90-90-90 targets that 90 percent people living with HIV knowing their status, 90 percent of people who know their status are on treatment and 90 percent of those on ART have sustainable viral suppression by 2020.
Speaking during the World Aids Day commemorations in Kwekwe on Friday, Acting Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Douglas Mombeshora said the Government will scale up the distribution of the self-testing kits following high demand and acceptability by the people.
“A year ago, my ministry together with National Aids Council (NAC), Unitaid, World Health Organisation and other partners launched the HIV self-testing STAR project. As we look back today, we now have evidence that the demand acceptability and use of HIV test kits are high especially when offered at community and facility level, targeting population groups that are difficult to reach with other testing services,” he said.
Dr Mombeshora said the Government should allocate more resources towards the health sector in the wake of dwindling donor funding.
“Effectively closing the tap of new HIV infections will require considerable financial investments to front load interventions that work. We have our homegrown Aids levy, for which we have been regarded as a pathfinder in domestic funding, but its growth has been affected by the economy challenges we face. Despite this setback the levy has been a flexible and reliable resource through which we have supported ART roll out and other emergencies such as cancer and TB. I would like to commend NAC for allocating funds from the Aids levy per year to drive community based prevention initiatives,” he said.
Dr Mombeshora said the Government was in the process of establishing a national health insurance that would buttress the level of resources for the response to HIV and Aids and related infections.
“The majority of our interventions including treatment are funded by our donors and partners. We will always need them and I am grateful that they continued to support us. The Government is in the process to establish a national health insurance and I hope that it can also buttress the levels of resources for the response to HIV and Aids and related infections,” he said.
— @Munya_Musiiwa
