Young people in
Zambia, like in many other African countries, are waiting longer to have
sex, according to a recent UNAIDS report. But more needs to be done in a
continent ravaged by AIDS. In Zambia, more than 1 million people are
HIV positive.
The national health
care system is in dire need of funds in order to provide antiretroviral
treatment (ART) to those living with the virus; but in June the Global
Fund, the world's largest donor of HIV/AIDS projects in Africa,
suspended its funding following a corruption scandal in 2009 in which
two officials embezzled $2 million (1.6 million euros) of aid money.
Resistance to some prevention measures
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Safer sex campaigns have not always been successful
Corruption is just one
of the problems. When aid and funds often come from the West, culture
also plays a role. What is acceptable in western nations is not always
welcome in developing ones, said Edward Greene, the Global Fund's
Portfolio Manager for Zambia.
He pointed to a
controversial male circumcision program as an example. Some scientists
believe that male circumcision may reduce the risk of HIV transmission
up to 60 percent. As a result, programs for widespread male circumcision
have been promoted in Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania as a means of
reducing HIV transmission.
"No one can make a
broad statement saying that circumcision reduces the chances of
transmission of HIV/AIDS, it has to be combined with counseling and
prevention measures," Greene told Deutsche Welle.
Getting people tested still a hurdle
Some of the programs
have also met with resistance from non-circumcising ethnic groups,
according to Marie Stopes International, an NGO that works on
reproductive and sexual health. The organization has tried to combine
HIV/AIDS counseling with male circumcision programs. Some 47 percent of
the men circumcised from 2009 to 2010 decided to be tested for HIV;
nationally, one in three adults has been tested.
The government has
promoted the free HIV treatment it has provided since 2004 as a reason
to motivate more people to get tested. More than a million people were
tested in 2009, twice as many as 2008, and close to a quarter of a
million of Zambians are on HIV drugs.
"Access to
antiretroviral treatment gave hope to people because counseling and
testing is not a dead-end if there's no treatment," Martin Schmid, a
project manager in the health division of the KfW Development Bank, told
Deutsche Welle.
More money for ARTs
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Those living with HIV are now the focus of the fight against the virus
As the number of
people tested increases, so does the number of people requiring ARTs.
Those who are on ARTs require them for the rest of their lives, and
health workers need to monitor the drug regimens of those on treatment.
For a country like
Zambia, which suffers from a severe shortage of health care workers and
medical resources, this is a daunting task.
And the WHO's recent
recommendation that those living with the virus start taking ARTs
earlier is likely to raise the need and priority for HIV treatment and
possibly underscore the ongoing need for prevention.
Author: Chiponda Chimbelu
Editor: Sean Sinico
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5814859,00.html
