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(HERALD) State of the Nation Address on the eve of World Aids Day

State of the Nation Address on the eve of World Aids Day
Thursday, 01 December 2011 00:00

Robert Mugabe President of Zimbabwe

Fellow Countrymen, Ladies and Gentlemen, Comrades and Friends. As has become tradition, Zimbabwe will tomorrow join the community of nations in commemorating the 23rd Anniversary of World Aids Day. This year's theme for the day is "Getting to Zero."

Anniversary World Aids Day helps us to commemorate the memory of loved ones who have succumbed to the pandemic. It is also a day for families and the nation at large to reflect on the subject of behavioural change, which remains one of the pillars on which we pin the hopes of taming the HIV/Aids pandemic. This year's theme calls our attention to three very important "zeros" in the response to HIV/Aids, namely;
Zero new HIV infections, Zero HIV/Aids stigma and discrimination, and Zero Aids-related deaths.

Fellow countrymen, one of the ways of achieving the zeros I have referred to, is by ensuring that people have universal access to HIV and Aids services. Although our country is known all over the world for its successes in HIV prevention and the dramatic reduction of the HIV prevalence rate, we are still recording significant new HIV infections.

The time has come to aim for zero new infections. We have already laid the solid foundation of both human and material infrastructure through which we have achieved world acclaim for a declining HIV prevalence rate.

Studies show the rate stabilising at around 13 percent. However, the falling rate is not in itself a strong indication of the effectiveness of our programmes.

Through the provision of treatment services, we should ideally reduce the number of HIV-related deaths. Our country has a range of HIV prevention programmes which, over the years, have served as examples to other nations. Yet to get to zero new infections, we still need to expand the prevention of the mother-to-child transmission while expanding the number of facilities that provide HIV testing and counselling from the current 74 percent national coverage.

I would like to commend the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, the National Aids Council and our partners for running the door-to-door testing campaign in the provinces of Manicaland, Harare and Mashonaland East as part of the pre-and post-launch activities of the World Aids Day.

I would like to encourage our people to get tested. We also have to scale up other programmes such as condom promotion, male circumcision, awareness campaigns and the encouragement of abstinence. In response to disturbing evidence that more infections are occurring in stable long-term companionships, I want to challenge the National Aids Council and its co-operating partners to find new ways of reaching out to people in such circumstances with targeted HIV prevention measures.

In September this year, I officially opened the Second National Conference on HIV and Aids, which ran under the theme, "Virtual Elimination of HIV among Babies: Keeping Mothers Alive." There is absolutely no reason for any child to carry the virus when transmission from mother-to-child can be prevented. Equally, there is no justification for HIV-positive mothers to have their lives unnecessarily shortened when treatment is available.

I would like to pay tribute to our own National Aids Trust Fund through which we are now supporting 35 percent of people on the national anti-retroviral treatment programme. In addition to the drugs, I am pleased to note the Aids Levy has also been deployed to procure CD4 count machines, HIV test kits and blood management accessories.

At this juncture, I would like to thank the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, the National Aids Council and all our partners for their dedication and fruitful work this year in pursuit of the three zeros. Together we will make it!

Good Night

Labels: ROBERT MUGABE, SPEECHES, WORLD AIDS DAY

posted by MrK @ 5:24 PM