Staff Writer
Following the withdrawal of United States government funding on health sector, government has been called upon to mobilize and make use of local resources to fund the health sector especially areas of HIV and AIDS.
In a statement to mark World AIDS Day, Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) said it has proved risky to rely on foreign funding hence the need to restrategize.
“Following the abrupt withdrawal of United States Government funding, the awakening call has been presented on getting weaned from major donors to avert from consequences in funding the health outcomes within the
vertically funded programs of HIV and AIDS,”said CWGH.
” Zimbabwe now need to prioritize domestic resource mobilization for health as it has proven that it risky and
unsustainable for a country to depend substantially on external partners as donors can withdraw financial support anytime should their interests shift for
some reasons or other”.
CWGH said as a result of socio-economic crisis, which resulted in the neglect of the health delivery system,a number of people on ART will succumb from other ailments.
“The AIDS Levy, in particular, has played a crucial role in securing financing
for the country’s HIV response, especially as donor support has declined. On
average, the AIDS Levy has raised approximately US$40 million annually to
fund the National AIDS Council’s HIV response. The health delivery system has suffered from neglect during socio-economic and political crisis and the verticalized funding has done little to strengthen it. This means that the more people who have been tested and initiated on ART (95-95-95) may have improved for their HIV and AIDS trajectories, but will die
of other diseases and conditions including including the ongoing mass trauma casualties of the unchecked road carnage, NCDs as they live longer, substance abuse and other.
“The general poverty, unemployment and depressed living conditions are
major determinants of health and affect the quality of life of those living with
Aids and other chronic conditions. We have also suffered sustained and
continued brain drain of health care workers across all disciplines and this
impacted negatively on all aspects (preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative) of health and this contributes and this contributes to poor
population health status and poor health outcomes for the HIV infected who
rank among the vulnerable.”
CWGH added:
” The fast track approval of the long acting Lenacapavir injectable PrEP by
MCAZ should now move to action and implementation through availability and
access of the drug to all those who need it at an affordable price.”
This year’s World AIDS Day commemorations are being held under the theme, Overcome, Disruption, Transforming the AIDS response.