HIV Prevention Now, “Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise” is the theme for this year’s World AIDS Day in line with the Millennium Development Goals on AIDS to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the epidemic by 2015.

Have we kept the promise,” asks Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) Executive Director Mrs Lois Chingandu. There are several key regional and global declarations on HIV and AIDS that Zimbabwe and indeed the whole of SADC are signatory to.

These include the Brazzaville Commitment on Scaling Up Towards Universal Access to HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support in Africa by 2010, the Maseru Declaration on HIV and AIDS of 2003 which reaffirmed the commitment of SADC Member States at the highest level, to combat the AIDS epidemic as well as the Abuja Declaration on HIV and AIDS and other related infectious diseases, of 2001, which promised to address the “exceptional challenged they posed.

“We need to ask ourselves whether there has been a serious effort on our part as AIDS service organizations, the NGO community, as governments and the global community, to really honour the commitments made,” Mrs Chingandu said.

Political leaders in SADC and other parts of Africa have recognized HIV and AIDS as a threat to economic and social development, and stability of the region and have in recent years been advocating for, and developing several strategies, especially in the area of prevention so as to prevent new infections.

Zimbabwe has been hailed all over the region for managing to cut down on new HIV infections from more than 33 percent in 1999 to 18,1 percent in the 15-49 age-group now, owing mostly to behaviour change strategies that have seen people having less casual sex partners and girls delaying the onset of sexual activity.
However the statistics are still alarmingly high and as Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa says: “We cannot, as a country afford to relax but should aspire to keep cutting down on new infections until we get to a single digit number.”

A challenge for Zimbabwe is in the area of treatment where of the more than 300 000 people that need treatment, around 50 000 are accessing it.
With children the figures are even more dismal as only 4 000 are accessing treatment.

“We need more and more of our people on treatment, a mother of four children cannot afford to just die- a five-year old who has not seen all there is to see of life – the man or woman who is waking up everyday, at times without a decent meal to eat but who is just happy to be alive- they all need treatment,” reiterated the SAfAIDS deputy director.

Treatment is not just about taking drugs, while prevention is not just about keeping those who are negative, negative.

SAfAIDS has spent the greater part of the year developing a treatment literacy toolkit to assist in making such issues even more clear.
Treatment has taken on the face of positive prevention and is an essential tool of reducing new infections and delaying progression of the virus into AIDS. It is also an essential tool of reducing deaths.

SAfAIDS believes that even People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) need to understand the issue of positive prevention which includes preventing re-infection and understanding that even if both partners are HIV positive, they will have to protect each other and be responsible.
There is therefore, a need for more messages on treatment as positive prevention.

ABOUT Anti-retroviral therapy (ART):
ART is a holistic treatment that involves taking ARV drugs, understanding HIV and AIDS information, preparing for and adhering to ARV regimens, ensuring proper nutrition, psychosocial support and palliative care, monitoring of treatment and caring for the carers of People Living with HIV and AIDS.
With more than 50 percent of PLWHA in Zimbabwe being female, SAfAIDS has been actively involved in endeavours to feminize treatment issues and provide comprehensive woman specific information on treatment policy.

Zimbabwe as a nation has really been hitting hard on prevention. Dr Parirenyatwa’s favourite catchword is “Prevention, Prevention, Prevention” for while over 2 million people are living with HIV and AIDS, there is still at least 10 million that remain negative and it is important that they remain negative.

World AIDS Day is the time for global partners to reflect on whether they fulfilled their obligations to the developing world and fore governments to look at how accountable they have been in fulfilling their obligations to the people.

ABOUT SAfAIDS: Established in 1994, SAfAIDS is a regional non-profit HIV and AIDS organization based in Harare, Zimbabwe. The organization promotes ethical and effective development responses to the epidemic and has made its impact through HIV and AIDS knowledge management, capacity development, advocacy, policy and research, with special emphasis on gender and human rights. SAfAIDS currently implements programmes throughout Africa and strives to be leading regional center of excellence in the organizing, analyzing, repackaging and disseminating of HIV and AIDS information in response to the needs of communities.