First lady Auxilia Mnangagwa will early next month host African first ladies to deliberate on the prevention of mother to child transmission and elimination of new born infections on the continent.
The meeting, which will be held in Victoria Falls, is among a series of events that are being held ahead of the International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (Icasa).
Zimbabwe will host Icasa from December 4 to 9 at the Harare International Conference Centre under the theme Aids, is not over: Address inequalities, accelerate inclusion and innovation.
More than 8 000 delegates are expected in the country to attend the biennial conference which is organised by the Society for Aids in Africa.
The conference brings together participants from across the globe to discuss the latest research, policies, and developments related to HIV and Aids as well as STIs in Africa.
Icasa provides a platform for researchers, healthcare professionals, activists, policymakers and advocates sharing their experiences and expertise, and to network and collaborate on efforts to combat the HIV and Aids epidemic as well as strengthen the health systems in Africa.
Health and Child Care minister Douglas Mombeshora confirmed that the first lady would host one of the two high-level meetings to be held in Victoria Falls in the run up to the global conference.
“We are very excited as a government about the two high-level meetings, which we are going to host on December 2 in Victoria Falls as part of the build-up towards the Icasa,” he said.
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“We will have a meeting of the African first ladies to be hosted by our First Lady, Her Excellency Dr Auxilia Mnangagwa.
“This meeting will focus on addressing prevention of mother to child transmission and elimination of new born infections in Africa.”
Mombeshora said his ministry will on the same day host the African ministers of Finance, at a meeting focusing on addressing domestic financing of the HIV response to reach the UN 2025 goals and the African Union Agenda 2063.
Zimbabwe has made giant strides in taming the spread of HIV, but the mother-to-child transmission of the virus remain a challenge.
The first lady’s engagement with her counterparts is in line with The Global Alliance to End Aids in Children, an initiative meant to end Aids in children through a strong, strategic and action-oriented alliance of multisectoral stakeholders at national, regional and global levels that works with women living with HIV and their families, national governments and partners to mobilise leadership, funding and action to end Aids.
The meeting in Victoria Falls is being organised by the Office of The First Lady in collaboration with other first ladies in the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development, running with the Global Alliance initiative as well as the #WeAreEqual campaign.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), globally, an estimated 1,3 million women and girls living with HIV become pregnant each year.
In the absence of intervention, the rate of transmission of HIV from a mother living with HIV to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding ranges from 15% to 45%, WHO said.
In light of this Zimbabwe is promoting the integration of prevention of MTCT interventions into maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services, as well as strengthened health systems.
“We are making sure that we improve access to sexual and reproductive health services through preventing unintended pregnancies and screening and treatment for STIs in women and girls living with HIV, among others,” National PMTCT and pediatric HIV care and treatment coordinator in the ministry of Health and Child Care Angela Mushavi told journalists last week.
“We now have a triple EMTCT Plan: 2023-2026 targeted at eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV, syphilis and Hepatitis B.”
She said the Global Alliance to End Aids in Children initiative was among a myriad of programmes meant to ends in children by 2030.
