. Chilufya

By MILDRED KATONGO –
GOVERNMENT has said that the latest survey has shown a reduction in the HIV infection rate from 41,072 to 41,000.
Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya said that is commendable but more efforts needed to be done to completely reduce the HIV infection rate.
Dr Chilufya said there was need to equip people with information on HIV so that they make appropriate decisions to protect themselves from diseases.
He said programmes like prevention of mother to child HIV transmission should be escalated to ensure that there was zero HIV infection rate.
“We should not relax when it comes to TB and HIV and AIDS; Zambia has shown a down ward trend in the incidence of new HIV infections. In 2009 we had 41,072 cases while in the latest survey new infections have gone down to 41,000, that is commendable but not enough,” he said.
Dr Chilufya said Zambia must move on from having programmes on prevention to elimination of HIV.
He said the move would help protect the future generation and that the hope for the future HIV free generation was in an effective prevention of mother to child transmission.
Dr Chilufya said there was need to strategically state  intentions by focusing on elimination of HIV transmission from mother to child.
He said among other key messages to disseminate to the public, every pregnant woman in the country should know their status and that those who are HIV positive must be put on Anti-Retrol Treatment (ART).
Dr Chilufya also said that concerted efforts were being done to eliminate malaria in the country.