MUTARE – The government of Zimbabwe has launched the Zimbabwe Population Based HIV Impact Assessment 2020 (ZIMPHIA) that is aimed at improving the HIV treatment and health services in the country.
ZIMPHIA 2020 is a national survey on HIV that is funded by the United States President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with technical assistance from United States Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC).
The survey is being monitored by the Medical Research Council of
Zimbabwe (MRCZ).
ZIMPHIA 2020 will measure the state of health of Zimbabwean population and how many people are living with HIV and their viral load.
In an interview with the Zimbabwe Morning Post on the sidelines of a ZIMPHIA 2020 Manicaland Province sensitisation meeting held at a local hotel on Tuesday the ZIMPHIA director Doctor Munyaradzi Mapingure said:
“The survey will interview approximately 20 000 individuals
living in 12 000 randomly selected households across all the 10
provinces in the country.”
Mapingire added:
“Laboratory testing will be conducted on collected blood samples to determine HIV status.”
Mapingire encouraged Zimbabweans to embrace the survey as it seeks to examine the HIV situation by assessing the coverage and impact of HIV services at the population level and measuring the HIV-related risk behaviours using a nationally representative sample.
In her keynote speech read on her behalf by a Director in her Office
Lucky Basopo, the Minister of State for Manicaland Province Ellen
Gwaradzimba said Zimbabwe has over the years made significant
milestones in HIV programming.
Our national prevalence rate has drastically come down from a high of 29% in 1999 to the current 14.1% amongst the adult population.
“The incidence rate, that is, number of new HIV infections has gone
down from 1.03% in 2010 to 0.42% in 2016.
This truly is remarkable progress and we owe it to ourselves and the hard work and dedication
that we have produced over the years,” said Gwaradzimba.
She applauded results of ZIMPHIA 2015-2016 which revealed the progress the country was making with regards to the HIV/AIDS situation.
“According to the ZIMPHIA 2015-2016 survey results, in Zimbabwe 77% of people living with HIV knew their status, 88% of those people were on treatment, and 85% of those people on treatment were virally suppressed.
“ZIMPHIA 2015-2016 showed significant progress towards reaching the
UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets by 2020 and the global target to end AIDS by 2030,” she said.
The ZIMPHIA was first launched in 2015-2016 with the purpose of
assessing the coverage and impact of HIV services at the population
level and to measure HIV related risk behaviours using a nationally
representative sample.
