HARARE - The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) has revived a rural health care service for pregnant women and children born with HIV.
The news comes amid reports of a low uptake of antiretroviral treatment (ART) for children born with the condition.
UNICEF health chief Dr Aboubacar Kampo said in an exclusive interview
with The Zimbabwean* that his organisation was worried at the continued increase of children born with HIV in the country and had intensified AIDS services, especially targeting rural people.
Not only are we aware that only 30 per cent of children are on ART, but what
is even more concerning is that only 978 children are under two years, which represents four per cent of the children on ART. We know that starting treatment early increases survival chances, he said.
UNICEF said the programme, aimed to improve access to HIV testing in hard-to-reach districts through a family-centred and community involvement approach. They were using clinics and community awareness activities to promote participation.
We have done so because we believe that the rural population has the least services. We are not saying there are no cases in urban areas. One of the realities is that the urban population do have more access to health services and it is these inequities we would like to address, Kampo added.
To ensure that HIV exposed babies are followed up, UNICEF has supported the revitalisation of the village healthworkers programme. We are also assisting Zimbabwe in procuring ARVs and Cotrimxazole for prophylaxis, reaching above 10,000 HIV+ pregnant women and their babies every year.
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