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Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
Zimbabwe is on course to meeting its global target of ending Aids by the year 2030 evidenced by remarkable progress made on testing the majority of those expected to be living with HIV, initiating them on treatment and having their viral load suppressed.

The global targets of ending Aids stipulate that countries must have tested at least 90 percent of all people expected to be living with HIV, initiate at least 90 percent of them on ARVs and ensuring that at least 90 percent of them have their viral load suppressed – an initiative popularly known as the 90-90-90 targets.

An estimated 1,3 million people are living with HIV in Zimbabwe and slightly over a million of them are on treatment.
Presenting statistics on Zimbabwe’s progress towards meeting these targets to journalists during a National Aids Council organised workshop in Chinhoyi on Thursday, head of Aids and Tuberculosis Unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Owen Mugurungi said at least 74 percent of all those expected to be living with HIV have so far been tested.

He said from those tested, 86 percent of them out of a global target of 90 percent, are now on antiretroviral drugs and have their viral load suppressed, leaving a gap of only four percent to reach the global target of 90 percent by the year 2030.

Dr Mugurungi said last year alone, from the 329 103 HIV positive people who went for viral load testing, about 83 percent of them had their viral load suppressed, reinforcing earlier statistics pointing towards progress in ending Aids.

“Zimbabwe has made great progress in controlling the HIV epidemic and is well positioned to achieve the 90-90-90 fast track targets,’ he said.

“The biggest gap to achieving the 90-90-90 targets is testing and we need to step up our response efforts so that we reach out to these populations that we have not yet reached with our services.”

Dr Mugurungi said these populations included adolescents and young people, sex workers and men – mainly long distant truck drivers and prisoners.

He said more than half of adolescents and young people had never tested for HIV.
“HIV testing and counselling remains critical in reaching out to all those populations whom we haven’t reached and this is why we have initiatives such as HIV self testing,” said Dr Mugurungi.
He said to date, nearly half a million self test kits have been distributed.

Dr Mugurungi said evidence had shown that viral load suppression minimises chances of HIV transmission from an infected person to an uninfected partner, hence the emphasis on testing and initiation on ART.

Commenting on the country’s progress towards meeting the global HIV targets, Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa, who officially opened the journalists workshop, said while the country made tremendous progress so far, reaching out to the few people expected to be living with HIV could be a mammoth task hence the need to keep HIV on the agenda to ensure that gains already made in controlling the infection were not reversed.