ZIMBABWE is yet to adopt the new World Health Organisation (WHO) Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) guidelines, which are set to initiate early anti-retroviral treatment on people with HIV. REPORT BY FELUNA NLEYA
National Aids Council (NAC) monitoring and evaluation director Amen Mpofu said the new guidelines would be adopted as it was a good move. Under the new guidelines, a person living with HIV will now be initiated on ART if their CD4 count is 500 and below.
The country is currently using 350 for ART initiation.
“We think we will adopt the new WHO guidelines, but this also needs resources to be put in place,” Mpofu said.
“We are working on it so that we make sure we will be able to fund the new programme. We have the resources from Global Fund, but that will be from 2014 to 2016.
“We also have to think about 2016 and onwards and have the resources in place.”
He said using the new guidelines from WHO would help the country reach the target of zero new infections. “Having one initiated at 500 will improve the quality of the programme and the lives of the people and the cost,” Mpofu said.
“It will lower infection rate as it will go down and we get to the zeros we are advocating for. It might be costly when it starts, but in the long term it will help reduce on costs as we will have less new infections and healthier people.”
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The country has approximately 1,2 million people living with HIV. Of these, 600 000 are on ART.
The new WHO guidelines would result in more people being on ART.
He said early initiation of people living with HIV on ART would enhance a person’s immune system and reduce chances of contracting opportunistic infections.
