A total 83 million male condoms and 2.9 million female condoms were distributed in the year 2020, which is a far cry from the 100 million for men and 5.5 million that had been targeted for women during the year. By Michael Gwarisa The target misses were largely attributed to service disruption due to Covid-19. The 2020 figures were the lowest compared to the previous three years. The decline in condom distribution also affected uptake and use of condoms by Female Sex Workers and other HIV high risk groups. Presenting…
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PEPFAR To Spend $360 million On Key Populations
THE United States (US), President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) says it will spend not less than US$360 million on programs meant to support Key Populations in countries where PEPFAR is implementing HIV programs. HealthTimes Reporter The developments come hot on heels of the 2018 International AIDS Conference which was held in Amsterdam where a number of programs meant to scale up HIV prevention amongst various societal groups were launched. According to PEPPFAR’s fact sheet, the US$360 million injection would go a long in bridging to gaps that exists…
Read MoreZim Launches Prep Strategy…Program targets key populations
ZIMBABWE has launched Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) strategy for 2018 up to 2020 which is aimed at scaling up uptake of the PrEP drug amongst key populations and those at high risk of contracting HIV. By Michael Gwarisa Launching the strategy document, Health and Child Care minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa said Zimbabwe still faced a huge HIV challenge as it is still recording incidence around 32 000 people every year hence the need to increase prevention mechanisms. “Now I am proud to emphasise that we have successfully managed to reduce…
Read MoreNew Public Health Bill More Progressive- ZLHR
ZIMBABWE Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) Senior Program manager, Tinashe Mundawarara said the newly gazetted Public Health Bill (PHB) was inclusive of various sections of the society which were side-lined in the old 90 year old document. By Michael Gwarisa Briefing Journalists during media engagement yesterday, Mundawarara said the issue of key populations was touched at a wider length in the new bill even though more still needed to be done to make it a perfect document. “As you might be aware, the ministry of health has managed to push…
Read MoreIgnoring Key Populations Threaten 90 90 90 Targets
By Michael Gwarisa LEAVING key Populations (KPs) behind in HIV/AIDS interventions and programs poses a a threat to the ambitious target of reducing HIV prevalence, deaths and new infections by the year 2020. In Zimbabwe, KPs mean gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers and their clients, transgender people and people who inject drugs as the four main key population groups, but it acknowledges that prisoners and people with Disability also are particularly vulnerable to HIV and frequently lack adequate access to services (ZNASP3 )…
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