1st National Aids Conference in Zimbabwe

By Claudia Juhl, MS-Zimbabwe

15. September 2005

On 15 June 2004 the stage was set for the beginning of the first National Conference on HIV and AIDS, 18 years after the first case of HIV/AIDS was reported in Zimbabwe.

Close to 700 delegates from government, business and civic organisations including representatives from across Southern Africa as well as from around the world attended the four days conference at Sheraton Hotel in Harare. Participants also included traditional healers, researchers and individual Aids activists.

Under the theme “Taking stock: Looking into the future” the aim of the conference was to evaluate past and present efforts to fight the pandemic and find more ways of handling the disease. The present participants provided a challenging forum to share experiences, successes and current models of activities in order to point the way forward for national endeavours to the fight against the HIV/AIDS.
WHO reports show that Southern Africa is the epicentre of the epidemic with HIV and AIDS deaths accounting for 22.6% of the total deaths in 2002. HIV and AIDS are also the leading causes of disease burden in Africa with the percentage being 20.6%. With about one in four adults infected by HIV, Zimbabwe ranks second highest in the world after Botswana. The official prevalence of HIV in Zimbabwe is 24.6% among sexually active adults between the ages of 15 to 49.

Zimbabwe has been in the grip of the epidemic for two decades. The disease continues to cause incomprehensible suffering for families and the whole society with an untold number of children becoming orphaned; a health system that is failing to cope with the demand for prevention and treatment services; and the many families that are often overburdened by the need to care for ill relatives. According to the UNDP Zimbabwe Human Development Report of 2003, a number of 600 000 people had full-blown AIDS out of 2.1 – 2.3 million infected persons in 2003. Estimates state that at least 3000 Zimbabweans die of AIDS each week.

While a lot has been done to address the problem efforts to prevent transmission and lower the number of new infections remain a great and complex challenge. In spite of relatively high levels of awareness knowledge gaps, negative attitudes, in-appropriate decision making and lack of behaviour change still poses huge problems when it comes to oppose the spread of the disease.

The conference was officially opened on the second day by President Robert Mugabe who attended the conference together with his wife First Lady Grace Mugabe. According to comments from partners the President gave a very powerful speech whereby he fully acknowledged HIV and AIDS as one of the greatest challenges facing the nation. For the first time the President admitted that unnamed members of his own family had been affected by the disease, and he expressed hope that the National HIV/AIDS Conference would help the country in finding ways to fight the epidemic. “Our challenge remains that of working harder not only to safeguard the gains recorded so far, but also to reverse the tide of the epidemic, reduce new infections, and eventually bring down HIV prevalence to single digits,” the President said according to a report in the state-owned newspaper The Herald. He also emphasized the fact that the disease was non-selective of one’s social standing as people at all levels of society have been affected including Government ministers and members of the country’s diverse cultural spectra. The President noted that there was not even a single family that has not been affected. In his speech he expressed special concern about the tendency by many people to remain ignorant about their status and he advocated for action to remove the stigma still associated with knowing one’s status in order to enable people to live a healthier and informed life. It is estimated that only about 5% of the population has come forward for testing, reflecting a country-wide reluctance to know one’s HIV status. In an effort to encourage people to go for testing nine government and opposition MP’s (Members of Parliament) went for voluntary counselling and testing last month.

In the light of almost a quarter of the adult population being infected by the virus official attempts to set an example are still rare though. Critics blame prolonged official neglect, stigma and discrimination and lack of serious endeavours to combat the disease for the fact that Zimbabwe today has one of the highest prevalence rates in the world. Acknowledgement, openness and sincere attempts to deal with disease have taken to long to be seen and improved efforts are still in high demand. In this respect the conference provided an important opportunity for officials and well-known persons to speak openly about the impact of the disease. Robert Mugabe’s revelation put him company with other African state leaders like Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, Kenneth Kaunda from Zambia and Malawi’s Bakili Muluzi, who all broke a taboo by speaking publicly of losing close relatives to HIV/AIDS.

Dr Kenneth Kaunda himself, former president of Zambia, was among the international key speakers at the conference. Kenneth Kaunda, whose son died of AIDS in 1986, is known for his efforts to oppose the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS by speaking openly about his son’s death. As Zambia’s first black president a man of his reputation is of uppermost importance as ambassador for the HIV/AIDS awareness movement. At the conference Kaunda encouraged Zimbabweans to go for testing as he did himself. Furthermore he urged all stakeholders to unite in the fight against AIDS. “Why are we allowing political divisions, why are we allowing poverty, why are we allowing ethnicity, why are we allowing religion to stop us from fighting HIV/AIDS together. Let’s come together, fight together and destroy this thing before it destroys us,” he was quoted. In 2000 Dr Kaunda formed the Kenneth Kaunda AIDS Foundation which is focusing children, health and nutrition programmes.

Other state representatives attending the conference included health ministers from neighbouring countries such as Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Lesotho and South Africa, who had come to share their countries’ experiences in fighting the disease.
The impact of access to cheaper ARVs and ART as a means for AIDS patients to slow down the virus’ attack on the immune system and reduce the prevalence of opportunistic diseases, was a central discussion point during the first day of the conference. This year the Zimbabwean government introduced a programme to hand out and reduce prizes of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) and supervise anti-retroviral therapy (ART) at state-run hospitals. Local critics are sceptical of the impact of the new programme as they question the success of previous efforts such as the establishment of the National Aids Trust Fund and the National Aids Council, which have been shaded by accusations of corruption and lack of effectiveness. In 1999 Zimbabwe officially declared HIV/AIDS a national disaster and launched a National AIDS Policy, which implied the foundation of National Aids Trust Fund financed by a 3 percent levy on income tax to support local AIDS-programmes. The following year the National Aids Council was established by an Act of Parliament.

In the discussion on treatment and drugs the importance of nutrition was underlined as a necessary component for anti-retroviral drugs and other treatment to be effective. In a country where three-quarters of the population live in poverty malnutrition is a significant factor, which contributes to exacerbate the condition of people living with HIV and AIDS. A healthy and appropriate diet works is a vital help in boosting the immune system of people living with HIV and AIDS. South African health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang furthermore urged African countries to research on the effectiveness of traditional medicines and traditional foods to complement modern drugs and nutritional diets.

Topping the agenda was also the issue of care for people living with the virus showing the complex challenges implied in dealing with the pandemic. Besides the challenge to remove stigma and combat the spread of HIV and AIDS, Zimbabwe faces an incomprehensible task to care for people infected and affected by the disease. In light of the current economic hardships the question of care poses an overwhelming problem to most families and the society as such. Hospitals and local clinics often lack resources to provide treatment for the many diseased people. Due to the economic crisis many families are already struggling to secure food and sustain themselves. To care for their ill relatives and orphans left behind therefore often seems an impossible duty to meet.

Assistance to care for people living with HIV/AIDS is needed more than ever. Especially considering the fact that the number of diseased will continue to rise during the next years despite a possible lowering of the prevalence. The support of international aid agencies and NGO’s was thus praised as a most important assistance to deal with the crisis. Special thanks were given the UN who had sponsored the National AIDS Conference.

Undoubtedly the first National Aids Conference in Zimbabwe put a renewed focus on the HIV/AIDS crisis and provided for daily headlines and reports in the local news. So one can say that it’s impact on awareness raising must have been of some importance – especially with regard to the speeches done by President Robert Mugabe as well as former Zambian president Dr Kenneth Kaunda. Both of them spoke openly about the epidemic and opposed the stigma by revealing that some of their close relatives have also been affected by the disease.

But we are still to see the impact of the recommendations and the resolution given at the end of the conference. One does not want to imagine the amount of money spent on hosting a 600-700 people’s conference at one of the finest hotels in the capital Harare, or even imagine the amount diverted into awareness materials and aid for nutrition and treatment to the affected. Did we witness yet another talk shop? One can only hope that this giant event will have an impact – the more the better. Because we need to SAVE LIFE!