With the Southern Africa region said to be the most affected by HIV worldwide, Zimbabwe is the only country in which HIV prevalence has declined substantially at a national level. The Fact sheet released at the ongoing SADC Military Health HIV and Aids technical committee workshop in Victoria Falls reads:
“There is a clear decline of HIV prevalence in pregnant women aged 15-49 visiting ante-natal clinics from 25,7 per cent in 2002 to 16,1 per cent in 2009. “Among young adult women and men aged 15-29 a similar HIV decline was found in nation-wide surveys among the general population. Other studies confirmed the trend of the decline including a comprehensive randomised trial among communities in Manicaland.”
The Fact sheet also reads that the decline in HIV prevalence was a combination of mortality and reductions in new infections.
“Levels of AIDS related deaths in Zimbabwe have increased rapidly over the 1990’s, but there is evidence that mortality peaked and levelled off around 2002/3 and declined since then. Most importantly, researchers found that the extent of the HIV decline could not be explained by mortality alone.”
The Fact sheet further explains that reasons such as natural dynamics and behaviour change by Zimbabweans were playing a major role in the HIV decline. “Natural dynamics is when the groups at higher risk are already infected or have died; new infections go down, simply because there are fewer HIV negative persons at higher risk to be newly infected. “Behaviour change is what made the difference in the country. More people in the country now walk the talk. Fewer young people have casual or multiple sex partners and many young people use condoms with non-regular partners,” reads the Fact Sheet.
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