Zimbabwe: HIV Prevalence Declines. 7/7/10
Behaviour change - particularly among men - has led to the decline in Zimbabwe's HIV prevalence
7 July 2010
Harare — Health experts have said behaviour change - particularly among men - has led to the decline in Zimbabwe's HIV prevalence from 16 percent in 2007 to the current rate of 13 percent.
National Aids Council officials attending the National Draft Partnership Forum in Harare last week, said the increased number of men willing to opt for methods such as male circumcision and condom use would see the prevalence rate further declining.
NAC said commercial sex workers topped the list of users of condoms.
Presenting an update on behaviour change programmes, the national HIV prevention co-ordinator in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare's Aids and Tuberculosis Unit, Ms Gertrude Ncube, said the challenge lay in convincing churches to advise their followers correctly.
"We want to thank those churches that are helping for their response, which has been overwhelming.
"They are willing to preach to their congregations about sexual behaviour change," she said.
The forum debated how best to encourage circumcision within the male population as a means of fighting HIV and Aids.
"Male circumcision is a very important tool in the drive to reduce the HIV pandemic from spreading and as a behaviour change tool.
"Evidence has it that if used together with other prevention strategies, the process has a 60 percent chance of protection from HIV," Ms Ncube said.
The circumcision programme targets HIV negative men.