News / Health
Zimbabwe has no capacity to take care of HIV, Aids patients
02 Sep 2013 at 06:29hrs | Views
CLOSING down non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will affect HIV and Aids patients as the country has no capacity to take care of them, Aids and Arts Foundation (TAAF) executive director Emmanuel Gasa said.
Speaking on the sidelines of an HIV and Aids workshop in Harare recently, Gasa told Newsday that Zimbabwe still had many internally displaced settlements, making it difficult to reach out to homeless people to provide the life-prolonging Anti Retroviral drugs (ARV).
"The demand for HIV and Aids medicines has now risen and my organisation has noted an element whereby internally displaced settlements need to be given a priority in Anti Retroviral (ART) access because Zimbabwe has many homeless people," said Gasa.
"Non-governmental organisations supporting HIV treatment programmes should therefore not be allowed to close down because Zimbabwe on its own has no capacity to support its estimated 1,2 million people living with HIV and Aids."
He said there was need to engage in dialogue with international partners to achieve new World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines stipulating that an infected person with a CD4 cell count of 500 should access ARV treatment.
"We need to sit down with international partners to achieve the new WHO guidelines that a person should get access to treatment when the CD4 cell count is at 500. Zimbabwe is failing to give adequate access to treatment even to persons with a CD4 cell count of 350," he said.
Gasa's comments come in the wake of threats by Zanu PF to stop what it called "donorfication of the education and health sectors".
"There is now a determined, but illegal and corrupt programme to donorficate the education sector, and also the health sector which has an equivalent Health Transition Fund (HTF)," reads part of the Zanu PF manifesto.
"This donorfication is driven by sinister motives inspired by the desire to uproot the architecture of education and health delivery built by Zanu PF since 1980 and widely acknowledged around the world as hallmarks of unparallelled success.
"This threat needs to be nipped in the bud to restore the people's confidence in education and health delivery systems and to ensure their sustainability and relevance to the indigenous imperatives."
Speaking on the sidelines of an HIV and Aids workshop in Harare recently, Gasa told Newsday that Zimbabwe still had many internally displaced settlements, making it difficult to reach out to homeless people to provide the life-prolonging Anti Retroviral drugs (ARV).
"The demand for HIV and Aids medicines has now risen and my organisation has noted an element whereby internally displaced settlements need to be given a priority in Anti Retroviral (ART) access because Zimbabwe has many homeless people," said Gasa.
"Non-governmental organisations supporting HIV treatment programmes should therefore not be allowed to close down because Zimbabwe on its own has no capacity to support its estimated 1,2 million people living with HIV and Aids."
He said there was need to engage in dialogue with international partners to achieve new World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines stipulating that an infected person with a CD4 cell count of 500 should access ARV treatment.
Gasa's comments come in the wake of threats by Zanu PF to stop what it called "donorfication of the education and health sectors".
"There is now a determined, but illegal and corrupt programme to donorficate the education sector, and also the health sector which has an equivalent Health Transition Fund (HTF)," reads part of the Zanu PF manifesto.
"This donorfication is driven by sinister motives inspired by the desire to uproot the architecture of education and health delivery built by Zanu PF since 1980 and widely acknowledged around the world as hallmarks of unparallelled success.
"This threat needs to be nipped in the bud to restore the people's confidence in education and health delivery systems and to ensure their sustainability and relevance to the indigenous imperatives."
Source - Newsday
