100,000 Zimbabweans to access free ARV by year end: minister

The Zimbabwean government has set a target to provide at least 100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS with free anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) throughout the country by the end of this year, an official said on Wednesday.

"At present we have about 16,000 people on ARV in Zimbabwe," said Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa. "Our target for the end of the year is to have about 100,000 on ARV."

He added that the program of providing free ARV to people living with HIV/AIDS, which started at the country's central hospitals and later spread to provincial hospitals, was now at district hospitals and selected clinics.

With the experience gained from treating HIV/AIDS, the country was now treating people basing on clinical diagnosis, he said.

Parirenyatwa said Zimbabwe had so far received 4 million US dollars out of the 10 million dollars that the Global Fund approved for the country.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 1.8 million people living with the virus and about 3,000 dying from AIDS-related illnesses each week.

The infection is most prevalent within the 15 to 24 years old age groups, and this has been attributed to inadequate information on the pandemic.

Source: Xinhua