A MULTI-FUNDED five year initiative to improve access to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention services for pregnant mothers in Zimbabwe launched in Murewa District in January this year is reported to have progressed well and benefited thousands of the country’s rural populace who were reeling under the scourge of the disease.
The initiative is said to have contributed significantly to the reduction in AIDS related cases and deaths recorded in the area in the last six months.
Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at a cost of US$12.5 million, the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) at a cost of US$2 million, the United States Centre for Disease Control, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the multinational Johnson& Johnson, the initiative will run for five years.
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), the delivery agent of the initiative in the country, has started to expand its Zimbabwe Family AIDS Initiatives and national prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme.
Speaking at the launch of the programme earlier this year, EGPAF President Pam Barnes said, the project was aimed at reaching out to all pregnant women in Zimbabwe who are HIV positive in an effort to prevent HIV infections to their unborn babies.
A Murewa woman, Nyarai Mutyambizi who spoke to a Zimbabwe Guardian reporter said she welcomed the initiative and was glad that the activities of EGPAF were not stopped by government when it banned NGO work in the country.
“I have been helped a lot. My baby was born two months ago and was told she was not HIV positive. I’m thrilled about that,” she said in the local Shona language.
“The help I got is unbelievable and the government has helped by not banning this very useful work. We just hope things will be sorted out in Harare so that we can continue to receive such help,” she added.
More than 17,000 children were infected with HIV every year in Zimbabwe, according to statistics released last year. This figure is said to have significantly been reduced due to the government’s pro-active approach to HIV/AIDS and changes in attitudes within the Zimbabwean population due to increased awareness.
Last year’s statistics released by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MOHCW) showed that 1.3 million Zimbabweans were living with HIV/AIDS between 2002-2006 and an estimated 22,000 were newly infected every year.
Of the 360,000 women that fall pregnant annually, 60,000 were reportedly HIV positive.
These figures are said to be dropping, thanks to initiatives like the one launched in Murewa.
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