GlobalPost examines progress against AIDS in Zimbabwe

Jul 13 2012

GlobalPost examines efforts to combat AIDS in Zimbabwe as part of its "AIDS Turning Point" series. The news service writes that "what makes the case of Zimbabwe so curious -- and even confounding to many outside observers -- is that this country found success even though it was largely cut out of the big spending by PEPFAR's list of 15 so-called 'focus countries.'" GlobalPost continues, "Instead, Zimbabwe relies on its own well-mapped network of community health workers ... who fan out daily across the country to make sure the country's AIDS patients receive care."

"The National AIDS Council, a quasi-government organ set up to coordinate the fight against HIV, launched a community response program emphasizing prevention in 2001," GlobalPost notes. "Geoff Foster, a Zimbabwe-based pediatrician and a global HIV expert, said that the local response strategy -- the one deploying thousands of workers ... -- is largely responsible for [a] decline in HIV prevalence," the news service writes, adding that "Zimbabwe not only learned from its own experts but also from other African countries, such as Uganda, to focus its response on educating people to stop having multiple sex partners" (Mutsaka/Donnelly, 7/11).