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The Herald, December 7, 1992

AN estimated 4 020 children have died of Aids since 1985 and most of them had not reached the age of five, the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Timothy Stamps has said.

In an interview in Harare at the weekend, Dr Stamps said the children were born to HIV-infected mothers and got the disease either in the womb or during the birth process.

“I appeal to married couples to behave responsibly because it is terrible to see a child die of Aids. One can do nothing about it,” he said.

Cases of full-blown Aids are on the increase in newly-born babies at hospitals and clinics. More pregnant women, especially those in the 15 to 20 years age-group, were found infected with the HIV virus.

Dr Stamps said the issue of the disease in children was high on the agenda at the recently-ended international conference on assistance to African children in Dakar, Senegal.

The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare estimates that between 1985 and 1992 about 800 000 people in Zimbabwe were infected with the Aids virus.

The cases which were surfacing now were of the infections which occurred five to 10 years ago.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• Zimbabwe has made commendable progress in reversing the course of the AIDS pandemic through prevention of new HIV infections from mother to child, and through the provision of treatment to those infected, despite economic challenges being faced by the country.
• According to Dr Madzima, what prompted Zimbabwe to reach its 90-90-90 target on HIV was that the country implementing an integrated HIV testing services model, which deploys different testing approaches for different populations.
• The World Health Organisation, says despite the major scientific breakthroughs on HIV, the Aids pandemic has to date claimed over 36.3 million lives.
• The world body also claims that about 37.7 million people across the globe live with HIV.
• Although people are surviving on anti-retroviral therapies, the search for a vaccine seems to be eluding  scientists.