Director for Policy and Planning at the National Aids Council (NAC) says although projections show that Zambia’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has reduced from 14 to 12.7% more needs to be done.
Elizabeth Mvula said despite positive strides recorded in the fight against the pandemic the situation still remains worrying.
This is contained in a press statement availed to ZANIS in Lusaka yesterday by First Secretary for Press at Zambian embassy to Brazil Patson Chilemba.
Ms Mvula said this while leading a delegation involving officials from NAC and the civil society on a project themed “Strengthening of the National Strategic plan for HIV/AIDS” in Brasilia ,Brazil.
Ms Mvula said the study tour was aimed at getting important lessons, particularly that NAC was revising the strategic framework for people living with HIV/AIDS.
And Programme Manager for network of Zambia living with HIV Prisca Chintomfwa noted that there is need to emulate the Brazilian system which she said is more open and supportive in handling cases of discrimination.
Ms Chintomfwa said much emphasis against discriminating people with HIV/AIDS was revealed with strong supportive mechanisms which could lead to the prosecution of offenders.
Meanwhile, civil society coordinator at NAC Scrivener Kambikambi expressed happiness with the way Human Rights Commission in Brazil interacted with civil society on the joint committees that had been formed.
During their tour the delegation paid a courtesy call on Zambia’s Ambassador to the Federative Republic of Brazil Cynthia Jangulo and other officials.
The delegation also presented a general overview of the Zambia HIV and AIDS situation during one of the meetings.
Good news! One day it will be 0%
That is good news.How i wish the government could come up with a deliberate policy to cage people who are willfully spreading the disease in the name of not wanting to die alone.
…..these statistics are of a complex nature….they are subjective….maybe the drop is as a result of more people shying away from VCT….it is as complex as determining altitudes/behaviour change….one just need to visit night club and see….
…if the above record is a true and factual reflection of the situation, then we are getting somewhere as far as sensitisation and fight against this epidemic….good luck
these are indicatives as most come through antenatal and vcts
This is not yet time to celebrate until a further study is done to examine this.mreduction in prevalence simply means that the number of people living with HIV has reduced; note that this could mean that the people living with HIV are dying. What we need to celebrate is a reduction in incidence and not prevalence. A reduction in incidence means that the number of people being infected has reduced.
scrutinizerer the prevalence rate is not directly affected by the number of people coming for vct reducing. its the percentage of the positives among thoz coming for testing. whether they are 10 or 1m.
i think a drop of 2percent over a period of 7 yrs (the ZDHS interval) is quite insignificant. it just shows that we are not doing much. we need to quadriple our efforts.
@King….
exactly my point….the lesser the number visiting VCT the unreliable the statistics become….
on the other hand assuming the record is factual, even a 0.5% reduction or say we maintain the same percentage as of the previous year…we can raise our thumbs up…bcos it will mean we have contained the epidemic…other than recoding any increase…..
Zambia is one country in the world where people giv unempirical statistics and go scot free. Those statistics do not tally with wat is on the ground. If we ar to engage in a real fight against HIV/AIDS we shud not be content with these subjective findings. Yes NAC can continue making noise for they know that without such elusive, deceitful data their employment will be no more. Zambians shud open their eyes and be objective
May be the drop is due to the fact the number of new patients is lower than the number of old patients who have died. These statistics mean nothing!!!!
The 12.5% number is is for Antenatal Clinics in urban areas. In rural areas it is 3.9%. It is not representative nationwide.
” As a proxy for new infections, HIV prevalence levels of ANC clients aged 15-19 were reviewed during the MOT 2009. It was reported that, between 1994 and 2006-07, average site prevalence decreased overall in 15-19 year old ANC clients (see Figure 22 below, red line). After the initial drop between 1994 and 1998, mean site prevalence levelled off and then showed another downturn in the ANCSS 2006-07. The decrease in the most recent ANCSS was larger in rural sites (3.9%, which is 4% down from 2004) than in urban sites (12.5%, which is 1.6% down from 2004). “
Antenatal Clinic Surveys of pregnant women usually in urban areas, are not now, nor have they ever been statistically representative of the general population. Therefore, to generalize results from these ANC’s, is to commit an act of fraud.
Not only that, but when ELISA p24 tests are positive for over 10% of samples, a follow-up ELISA p55 is not performed. That means that false positives don’t get filtered out of the results.
This is why these ‘32.5% of Swazis are HIV positive’ claims are always replaced by a ‘6% of girls are HIV positive’ whan a Demographic and Health Survey is performed on the general population, or an ANC is used and rural women are tested instead of urban women.
Google: “much lower HIV infection among youth” irinnews
This has been known for almost a decade now. The writers still rely on ANC data from Southern Africa, however they acknowledged that the HIV rate in West-, Central and East Africa had basically disappeared, just by using a more representative survey type, the DHS instead of the ANC.
(Google:) (BOSTON GLOBE) Estimates on HIV called too high
New data cut rates for many nations
By John Donnelly, Globe Staff | June 20, 2004
(Google:) (WASHINGTON POST) How AIDS in Africa Was Overstated
Reliance on Data From Urban Prenatal Clinics Skewed Early Projections
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 6, 2006; Page A01
” Director for Policy and Planning at the National Aids Council (NAC) says although projections show that Zambia’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has reduced from 14 to 12.7% more needs to be done. ”
This is not true, because Zambia does not have a national HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 12.7%.
Zambia had 12.7% of pregnant urban women, whose samples were only tested with a single p24 ELISA screening test, test positive on that one screening test.
Getting more than just a p24 ELISA screening test, an additional p55 Elisa test, the same survey put ANCs of rural women at 3.9%.
If women are more likely to be infected, that last 3.9% number will be even lower for men, and much lower for children.
The Congo DRC’s is 1.6%.
You Chaps, with so much AIDS you claim to be a Christian Nation??? yet AIDs in the DRC where it started in the 1920s is 1.6% – hypocrites!
From the 2014 Country Report, and notice that this was 7 years ago:
” 1.6 Reduction in HIV Prevalence
” The decrease in the most recent ANCSS was larger in rural sites (3.9%, which is 4% down from 2004) than in urban sites (12.5%, which is 1.6% down from 2004). ”
Translation – 3,9% in pregnant rural women, 12.5% in pregnant urban women.
Not only are pregnant urban women not representative of the general population… they’re not even representative of pregnant rural women.
Therefore, extrapolating the returns from pregnant women in urban areas to the general population, is a fraud.
Trying to obtain monies under false pretenses.