NEW country director at the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Beth Tippett Barr, says she will continue to advocate for more US support to make the virtual elimination of HIV a reality in Zimbabwe.
BY OWN CORRESPONDENT
“My passion lies with ensuring that high quality data from HIV-related services is routinely gathered and reviewed. It is only through the iterative process of reviewing programme performance and adjusting our activities accordingly, that we can hope to reach 90-90-90 in Zimbabwe,” said Barr at a reception held by US Ambassador to ZImbabwe Bruce Wharton to introduce her to partners in the health sector.
The 90–90–90 is an ambitious treatment target set by UNAids to help end the Aids epidemic.
Its goal is to see 90% of all people living with HIV knowing their HIV status, 90% all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression by 2020, in order to achieve epidemic control by 2030.
A veteran in the field of public health, Barr has worked for the last 15 years in HIV prevention, care and treatment, the majority of which has been in southern Africa.
She has worked in Botswana and Malawi, and provided technical support to the health ministries in Tanzania, Mozambique and South Sudan as they planned and transitioned to Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transimission (PMTCT) Option B+.
Her most recent assignment was in Malawi, where she was branch chief for health services at the US Embassy in that country.
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She said she believes Zimbabwe’s achievement in the HIV and Aids field puts it in good stead to reach the 90-90-90 targets.
“Zimbabwe is on a strong trajectory to reach 90-90-90, and I am excited to join you all in the ongoing fight to make the virtual elimination of HIV a reality,” Barr said.
Her organisation, with funding from the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), is supporting the Health and Child Care ministry in implementing the Zimbabwe Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (Zimphia).
Zimphia is a nationally representative, population-based HIV impact assessment survey whose aim is to measure the burden of HIV and the impact of Zimbabwe’s HIV prevention, care and treatment services.
The results from the survey will benchmark progress towards the UNAids 90-90-90 targets and help to further improve programmes and resources towards populations at greatest risk and most in need of services and to guide future investments.
Barr replaces Peter Kilmarx, who is now based at the Fogarty International Centre at the National Institutes of Health in the United States.
She comes to Zimbabwe at a time when the US government has for the third year running approved an annual budget of $95 million to fund HIV and Aids programmes in Zimbabwe under Pepfar.
The approval, announced in July this year, will enable CDC Zimbabwe and other United States Embassy agencies to support the implementation of HIV and Aids activities aligned to the Zimbabwe National Strategic Plan for 2011-2015 and the UNAids Fast Track Strategy.
CDC leverages its core strengths to advance four overarching global health goals of improving the health and well-being of people around the world as well as working to improve capabilities for preparing for and responding to infectious diseases and emerging health threats.
