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ZimbabweAIDS emergency declared
The impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe is overwhelming, with 2 million (or one-in-three) adults infected. In May 2002, the government declared a national emergency and became the first country to override patent protection on brand-name drugs to allow use of generic versions to treat AIDS, in line with the Doha Declaration. MSF fully supports this action to secure more affordable antiretrovirals. Since late 2001, MSF has working to implement a program targeting mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Bulawayo, the country's second largest city. Ongoing tensions in rural areas forced MSF to suspend its HIV/AIDS program at the Inyathi hospital in Bubi district in Matebeland North province in September 2001. With a food security crisis looming, MSF began training local staff in therapeutic and supplementary feeding in Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North in July 2002. MSF first worked in Zimbabwe in the 1980s. |
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