HIV negative Zimbabweans to get ARVs

Government has adopted new World Health Organisation guidelines which will see the roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs to HIV negative people at high risk of contracting the disease as a preventive measure known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis which refers to the administration of anti-retroviral drugs before exposure to prevent HIV negative people from acquiring the virus.

Currently, anti-retroviral drugs are being administered to people who have been tested and found to be HIV positive. Post-Exposure Prophylaxis is currently only available for people who have been exposed, like nurses, during the course of their duty and rape victims. Releasing the results of the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS) and the Zimbabwe Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (ZIMPHIA), Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis will go a long way in arresting new infections.

Mnangagwa also launched the National guidelines at World Aids Day commemorations running under the theme “Closing the Tap of New HIV Infections” in Kwekwe last week.