Quarantined Returnees to Get Condoms, Tested for HIV

PLANS are afoot to ensure that returnees at various Covid19 centers across the country are provided with condoms and other HIV related healthcare services, including testing, in a bid to ensure that issues to do with HIV and Aids are not neglected at the expense of the novel coronavirus.

This comes at a time when the National Aids Council (NAC) and its implementing partners have collaborated with the Ministry of Health and Child Care to ensure continuity in the provision of health care services amid the coronavirus pandemic.

NAC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Bernard Madzima told state media that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently warned African states against neglecting other health sectors and ailments at the expense of the catastrophic Covid19 pandemic which has literally unsettled Planet Earth with skyrocketing mortalities whilst hundreds of thousands have contracted the deadly disease globally.

Dr Madzima said Zimbabwe has made concerted efforts in the fight against HIV, saying the country’s robust intervention strategies have resulted in the prevalence rate going down from 25 percent to about 14 percent.

The southern African country is expecting more than 3000 returnees from neighboring Botswana and South Africa as the Sadc countries are also on lockdowns to mitigate the spread of Covid19.

“We are working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care teams to make sure that the services which are offered at the health institutions or in the communities are also extended to people who are quarantined. They are not sick people, they are not ill (but) they still need necessary healthcare services like condoms provision, HIV testing or even self-testing,” the state-run Sunday News quoted Madzima as saying.

He also said returnees who are on anti-retroviral treatment will also continue to receive medication in the event that they provide medical treatment history and cards.

State Media

Additional Reporting: Zwnews