The Sunday News
PEOPLE living in urban areas in the Matabeleland region are reluctant to access HIV testing and counselling services compared to their counterparts in rural areas, a recent HIV testing and counselling programme carried out in the region has shown.
The two-week Ministry of Health and Child Care-spearheaded campaign was targeting Matabeleland South, Matabeleland North, and Bulawayo provinces, against the background of the three provinces being hotbeds of the HIV virus in the country.
The director of the Aids and TB Unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Owen Mugurungi, told Sunday News last week that the HIV testing and counselling campaign received an overwhelming response from people in the region with thousands taking part.
He, however, noted that although the ministry was still compiling data on the campaign, preliminary indications showed that the response to the programme in urban areas was subdued compared to rural areas.
“The HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC) campaigns have been successful. The response from the communities is quite encouraging as people came in their numbers.
“We are excited with the response, though yes in some of the areas particularly towards the urban sites, the response has not been that consistent,” he said.
The HIV testing and counselling campaign saw communities in the region accessing a wide range of services, including immunisation and growth monitoring for children, family planning services, ART services, CD4 count test, antenatal and post natal care services and referral for voluntary medical male circumcision.
Dr Mugurungi expressed optimism that the campaign met its target of reaching out to five percent of the total population in the three provinces.
“We are optimistic that we met the targets for the campaign. We are still collecting and collating the data, but the indication so far is quite encouraging,” he said.
The campaign which took a family centred approach was aimed at increasing the number of people who know their statuses countrywide and ran under the theme; “Get them tested as a family, bring your children for testing so that as a family people can know their HIV status”.
Dr Mugurungi said the family centred approach, where families are encouraged to get tested as a unit, was one of the strategies designed to enhance uptake of HIV testing and counselling services in the country.
According to the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (2010-2011) an estimated 66 percent of Zimbabweans have been tested and know their HIV status, against a national target of 90 percent by 2020.
“The emphasis of the campaign was on a family centred approach and therefore, we are excited that parents and caregivers came with their children for testing and other related services.
“The message of the importance of getting tested for HIV as a family is going through and as a Ministry, we need to continue strengthening this approach as we scale up HIV testing services countrywide,” he said.
HIV prevalence rates in the three provinces in Matabeleland region rank among the highest in the country, while the incidence rates in the region is also among the highest countrywide.
Prevalence rate refers to the proportion of people in a population who are living with HIV over a certain period, and incidence rate is the number of new cases per population at risk in a given time period.
Matabeleland South province has the highest HIV prevalence rate of 21 percent followed by Bulawayo which has 19 percent and Matabeleland North which has 18 percent. Mashonaland East province has a prevalence rate of 16 percent, Mashonaland West has 15 percent followed by Mashonaland Central, Manicaland, Masvingo and Midlands provinces whose prevalence rates stand at 14 percent. Harare’s prevalence rate stands at 13 percent.
The 2013 HIV hotspot mapping estimates of provincial incidence rates pegged Bulawayo at 2,46 percent, while in Matabeland South it stands at 1,41 percent and in Matabeleland North the rate was pegged at 0,82 percent. Mashonaland Central’s incidence rate was estimated 0,84 percent, Mash East 0,91 percent, Masholands West 0,54 percent, Midlands 0,88 percent, Harare 0,68 percent, Manicaland 0,87 percent and Masvingo 0,80 percent.
The national average is estimated at 0,93 percent.
The ongoing HIV testing and counselling campaign is in line with the global HIV targets of the 90.90.90 approach by 2020.
According to the global HIV targets 90 percent of the world’s population should know their status by 2020, while 90 percent of all people who test positive will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy by the same year and 90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression by 2020.
