Back in the 80s, a new and unknown virus spread. HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, infected millions of people. In the southern African country of Zimbabwe alone, in the mid-1990s it was estimated that a quarter of the adult population carried the infection. The virus itself broke down the immune system, and left untreated, violent and potentially fatal sequelae followed with it under the unpleasant name of AIDS. In 2002, 130,000 Zimbabweans died from the disease. If you fast forward a couple of decades, you can read about a more encouraging reality. AIDS-related deaths in Zimbabwe have fallen by 84 per cent since 2002, the number of infections from 2010 to 2021 has fallen by 70 per cent and 99.5 per cent of all infected people receive medicine that keeps the infection at bay. Zimbabwe is now taking another important step in the fight against HIV. The country is the first African country to approve a new HIV preventive drug, CAB-LA, which was recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) in July. What is CAB-LA? The important progress against HIV and AIDS since the turn of the millennium is due in particular to medicine to treat the infected and better control of cases of infection. The latter involves, among other things, preventive medicine against HIV (called (PrEP – Pre Exposure Prophylaxis), which significantly prevents the risk of becoming infected, and which is most often offered to particularly vulnerable groups, such as sex workers and men who have sex with men. CAB- LA is precisely preventive medicine, the medicine is a shot with antiviral substances that act as a barrier against HIV. – Although CAB-LA is at least as effective as regular PrEP, where you take a pill every day, the advantage of the new medicine is that you should only have a single injection every two months, says Pernille Høj, who is an international consultant and political advisor at the Aids Foundation. – This means that you avoid the hassle of the pills, have less contact with the healthcare system and it is easier to keep it private , so you reduce the fear of discrimination, says the consultant, who has previously lived and worked with HIV and health efforts in Senegal, Tanzania and Togo. Pernille Høj also emphasizes that the new drug in does not mean that the HIV epidemic has now been won in Zimbabwe. – CAB-LA cannot alone end the HIV epidemic, but it is another tool in the large toolbox that is needed if we are to fight HIV globally. And that is what is gratifying, she says. Zimbabwe is the third country in the world to approve the drug (after Australia and the US) a further 11 countries have applied for access. But CAB-LA is a markedly more expensive solution compared to PrEP, and therefore, according to Pernille Høj, it is important that prices are lowered in the future, before the new drug can really play a decisive role in the fight against HIV. Still many infected Despite Zimbabwe’s HIV victories, the southern country in Africa is still one of the countries with the most cases of infection on the continent. Up to 1.3 million people in the country live with the infection. But with great progress since the turn of the millennium, there is still hope that Zimbabwe will reach the global goal of eliminating AIDS by 2030. Last year, the country announced that it had successfully reached the so-called 90-90-90 goal. This means that 90 per cent of all people living with HIV know they are infected, 90 per cent of all those diagnosed with the infection receive medical treatment and 90 per cent of all those receiving treatment should benefit from it to keep the virus at bay. But in order for Zimbabwe and the rest of the African continent to continue the fight against HIV, according to Pernille Høj, it is crucial that more money is set aside for the purpose. – The international financial support for the fight against HIV has been falling in recent years, and right now we risk losing all progress. We see that the proportion of new infections is rising in, among other places, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Asia, and therefore it is important that we regain control, she emphasises.
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Zimbabwe takes another important step in the fight against HIV
