Some nurses in Harare, Zimbabwe, are reportedly charging people living with HIV small “fees” for access to antiretroviral (ARV) medication, as the country grapples with a worsening ARV shortage.
The crisis stems from a suspension of foreign aid by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who halted all international assistance for 90 days with immediate effect on 20 January.
The Trump administration subsequently disbanded the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and extended the aid freeze for a further 30 days, until 20 May.
Stanley Takaona, president of the Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Activist Union Community Trust, told Health Policy Watch that the aid cut by the United States has placed the country in a very difficult situation.
The government’s pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programme, aimed at populations with high HIV exposure, such as sex workers, has also been suspended amid the broader cuts to global aid under the Trump administration.
As of 2022, an estimated 1.3 million Zimbabweans were living with HIV, with around 1.2 million on ARV treatment. That progress is now under threat due to the disrupted medicine supply.
Despite having made major strides in the fight against HIV, becoming one of only five African nations to meet the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets by 2023, Zimbabwe now faces uncertainty.
At that time, 95% of people living with HIV were aware of their status, 98% of those were on treatment, and 95% of patients on treatment had achieved viral suppression.
Long queues have become the norm at HIV treatment centres, and patients fear for their futures.
A Harare resident, speaking anonymously to Health Policy Watch, said that some patients have resorted to bribing nurses to receive a six-month supply of ARVs. Said the patient:
Many HIV positive people in my area, including myself are now bribing nurses at local clinics in order to get the usual six months allocation of treatment drugs.
A nurse at a clinic in Harare, speaking to Health Policy Watch on condition of anonymity, admitted that some are charging a small fee for ARVs to supplement their meagre salaries. Said the nurse:
It’s our time to make money from the desperate HIV patients because our salaries alone can’t sustain us and so, with the now scarce ARVs, we just put a small fee on them for our own benefit in our backdoor deals with patients.
However, Zimbabwean authorities have denied reports that antiretroviral (ARV) drugs have run out. During a parliamentary question-and-answer session in February, Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora assured the nation that access to HIV treatment would continue despite uncertainties surrounding global aid.
Mombeshora claimed that Zimbabwe had secured enough ARV stock to last at least the next six months.
More: Health Policy Watch
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