The National Aids Council has announced that funds raised from the just ended NAC HIV and cancer Prevention Drive 4 Pro-AM Golf Tourney will be channeled towards the purchase of more cancer screening machines in the country’s hospitals.
Speaking during a recently held cocktail party in the capital, Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Obadiah Moyo gave NAC a pat on the back for their noble initiative to try and mobilize additional local resources targeted at the two deadly diseases, with particular focus on procuring five cervical cancer screening machines.
“The tournament particularly underlines the importance of the integration of health services and approaches to improve the well-being of our people. Our response to HIV and AIDS has recorded significant achievements including the world acclaimed reduction of HIV prevalence from over 29% in 1999 to 13,6% in 2018 and HIV incidence from 0.88% in 2011 to 0.5 in 2018,” said the Minister.
“Our emphasis on the three strategies of Prevention, prevention, and prevention has played a major role in the reduction of the overall burden of HIV and AIDS in the country,” added Dr Moyo.
“Access to antiretroviral therapy has expanded and we now have over one million people on treatment. We have committed ourselves to ensure that by 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV should be aware of their status, 90% of people living with HIV should be on treatment and that 90% of the people on treatment should have their viral load suppressed as we coast towards ending AIDS by 2030,”
Zimbabwe records over 6000 new cases of cancer per year with 60% of these associated with HIV. The majority of these cases affect women as 35% of them are cervical and 11,7% breast. Lack of community awareness has been identified as one of the major challenges that the country is facing in the fight against cancer.
A month ago, 16 cervical cancer screening machines were procured from last year’s tournament.
Robson Chinhoyi won this year’s edition of the tournament walking away with a trophy.
