Zimbabwe: Winnable Aids War Not Over Yet

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The Herald (Harare)

EDITORIAL
4 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 August 2008

Harare

Zimbabwe's falling HIV infection rates are now attracting international attention and praise, because Zimbabweans are doing something effective to fight the menace as individuals, couples, families, groups and as a nation.

The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition was particularly impressed that in the midst of economic problems and troubles, Zimbabweans were managing to integrate programmes run by the State, aid agencies, NGOs, semi-public groups and private organisations.

Obviously the more effective programmes, those designed to do something rather than just provide incomes for people in the "Aids industry", are led and run by officials prepared to talk to each other, despite the verbal battles among the less useful.

And that leads to another reason we think Zimbabwe has been recording successes.

Zimbabwe does not exclude any approach to the problem, and the effective groups fighting HIV infection rates are willing to co-operate on the core messages, even when they disagree.

For example, most church-led educational groups tend to stress chastity before marriage and mutual monogamy afterwards, and usually ignore or minimise the message that condoms can protect those who do not follow that message.

But that is fine. There are groups that stress the condom message and perhaps devalue the messages about chastity and monogamy. They are not in conflict, but are dealing with different aspects of the same problem.

Many groups, and the State itself, are involved in sourcing ARVs for those living with HIV and perhaps more can be done in this line. Many taxpayers would like to see a higher proportion of their Aids levy going on practical things.

The major reason for Zimbabwe's falling HIV infection rates, a statistic gathered and audited by reputable international agencies rather than generated by hopefuls within the country, has been a major cultural change, especially among the youth.

The same figures show that using a large number of approaches has been the best way forward. Some have changed their behaviour in one direction, living a more moral life. Others have changed to ensure that they always take precautions in their otherwise risky behaviour.

Peer pressure has become more positive. Unprotected risky behaviour is now considered daft by even the most flamboyant.

Far more positively, many youths do not want to live the sort of bed-hopping lives flaunted by their elders and a far large percentage than before are seeing monogamous relationships as normal.

Families are changing their ways of bringing up children. It is far more common for parents to warn and advise their teenagers now, to encourage them to live safely and to discuss their problems.

There is even a small, but growing, number of parents changing their views on lobola to make it easier for young couples in their twenties to settle down in a marriage.

Custom can be kept with effectively nominal charges, but making it easier for a couple to be properly married certainly contains the risk.

For it must be remembered that the battle against HIV is, for all of us, an individual matter.

The real heroes of Zimbabwe's battle against HIV are those hundreds of thousands of individuals and couples who either have made a positive decision never to engage in risky behaviour, or who have renounced their previous risky life, or who have at least minimised the risks.

But we have a long way to go. Infection rates are coming down, but they are still among the highest in the world although no longer the highest. All that we have seen so far is that the battle is winnable, not that we have won or even come close to winning.

We are going to have to maintain the pressure and work and helping each other make the same daily choices for many years if we are to be finally rid of HIV.

And even if a cure will come, and the latest hope in this line comes from Texas, it will take many years still before that is readily available. There is no certainty yet that there can ever be a real cure, and in any case the history of sexually transmitted diseases suggests that when a cure for one is found, new diseases arise.

We just, all of us, have to continue to fight the battle in our families, in our communities and, most importantly, in our own lives.

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