Brenna Matendere
Thousands of HIV patients from marginalized communities in Harare are receiving hope in life due to consolidated testing and treatment services being provided by the Aids Health Foundation (AHF).
The critical services being provided for free at the Parirenyatwa Centre of Excellence by AHF are changing lives of majority people with no medical insurance to cope with rising costs of services at private health facilities.
The revelations emerged during a recent media tour organized by AHF to help the media understand the work being done by the organization to ease the burden of people living with HIV.
Pascal Shambira, the AHF medical doctor revealed during the media engagement that women constitute the bulk of clients at The Centre of Excellence at Parirenyatwa Central Hospital.
“Our cohort summary as of June 2022; we had 5 630 patients, the majority are female who are 3 320 and males 2 310.”
“”Most of our patients are on first line ART we had 4 439 and 1 100 on second line and 91 on third line,” he said.
In western and central Africa, survey data suggest that HIV prevalence among women aged 20−29 years is higher than that among men of the same age in all countries which makes the intervention being made by AHF at Parirenyatywa Centre for Excellence critical in Zimbabwe’s target of ending AIDS by 2030.
During the media tour it also emerged that more than 400 children living with HIV are receiving care and treatment at AHF’s Parirenyatwa Central Hospital’s opportunistic infection clinic.
State of the art laboratories which issue results on key health issues in real time have also been established at the centre.
AHF’s paediatrician Tariro Chuma-Mutize revealed that a special programme is being unrolled to cater for children.
“We have a cohort of 400 children and adolescents living with HIV of which 280 are boys and the remainder are girls.”
“These children are getting HIV care and treatment here at the Centre of Excellence; we initiate them on treatment and we monitor them until they become adolescents and help with their transition to the adolescent clinic,” she said.
Chuma-Mutize reiterated that it is of paramount importance for children living with HIV to have timely diagnosis and antiretroviral treatment and care for purposes of managing viral loads.
“We are doing pretty well in terms of management and care as evidenced by our viral load suppression of about 85%,” she said.
She said, however, they were facing challenges with children with advanced HIV infection but there is a process underway of ensuring that cases of children do not go off hand.
“We manage the children from the time they get their diagnosis to where we initiate them on anti-retroviral medication,” she said.
AHF and the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care signed a memorandum of understanding to implement programs aimed at supporting the national health strategy through various aspects of HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment care and community services. The initial phase involved the setting up of Centers of Excellence at Parirenyatwa.
The programme has since spread to other places in Harare like Glen View and Sally Mugabe Hospital.
Zimbabwe is among the countries in sub-Saharan Africa most affected by the HIV and AIDS epidemic which makes the work being done by AHF commendable.
Although new infection rates and AIDS-related mortality rates are declining, there are areas of high HIV transmission.
These include Harare province which currently has the highest number of people living with HIV in Zimbabwe according to latest existing figures.
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