.First Lady Christine Kaseba

By BRIAN HATYOKA –

ZAMBIA has been cited by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) as one of the top seven best performing countries in the world in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT).
First Lady Christine Kaseba said UNAIDS had cited Zambia as among the top seven best performing countries in the world in the area of PMTCT and that there was need to sustain such gains made.
“Zambia is proud to report that we have registered a lot of gains which we need to sustain and scale up,” Dr Kaseba said. “We are cited by UNAIDS as one of the top seven best performing countries in the world, particularly in the area of PMTCT,” she said.
Dr Kaseba said this in Livingstone yesterday in a speech read for her by Southern Province Deputy Permanent Secretary Douglas Ngimbu.
This was during the opening of the 2014 regional summit on post-2015 health development for HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases migrant and mobile populations in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Government through the National AIDS Council (NAC) in conjunction with Luke International Norway and Ping Tung Christian Hospital has organised the meeting.
Meanwhile, Dr Kaseba said like the fight against Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the SADC region must work together to tackle the possible or similar health challenges.
“We equally need to formulate harmonised frameworks to monitor progress in removing the underlying social barriers to health, including the migration context, and enable the health authorities within the SADC region effectively refer and trace important health cases,” Dr Kaseba said.
“Like the Ebola outbreak that our West African brothers and sisters are experiencing, we must work together as a region to tackle the possible or similar health challenges,” she said.
Meanwhile, SADC community medicine technical adviser in charge of capacity building and mainstreaming HIV/AIDS, Vitalis Chipfakacha cautioned the media against publishing or broadcasting alarming messages on the Ebola virus.
In his presentation on the Ebola virus, Dr Chipfakacha urged the media to always get accurate information from health experts and avoid publishing and broadcasting alarming messages.
Dr Chipfakacha said sensational reporting on Ebola could bring about panic in the SADC region.
“May I caution members of the Press because they are really sensationalising their reporting on Ebola,” Dr Chipfakacha said.