At a glance
CDC works with partners in Zimbabwe to strengthen the country's public health and clinical systems, deliver quality HIV testing and treatment services, and respond to emerging public health threats.
Background
CDC’s office in Zimbabwe works closely with the country’s Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC). The collaboration works to strengthen and expand its response to the HIV epidemic.
CDC Zimbabwe provides technical assistance and supports program implementation to build public health capacity and technical expertise. The technical assistance and support helps Zimbabwe reach and keep epidemic control. These efforts also enhance the infrastructure required for a high-impact and sustainable HIV response.
Current areas of strategic focus include:
- HIV prevention, testing, and antiretroviral treatment (ART).
- Tuberculosis (TB) screening, treatment, and infection control program.
- Laboratory support for quality assured HIV and TB diagnosis.
- Monitoring and strengthening systems for public health laboratories.
- Health systems infrastructure strengthening.*A
- Outbreak preparedness and response.
Download CDC Zimbabwe's Fact Sheet
HIV and TB data
HIV/AIDS
Estimated HIV Prevalence (Ages 15-49)
Estimated AIDS Deaths (Age≥15)
Estimated Orphans Due to AIDS
Reported Number Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy (Age≥15)
Tuberculosis (TB)
Estimated TB Incidence
TB Patients with Known HIV-Status who are HIV-Positive
TB Treatment Success Rate
Key activities and accomplishments
HIV prevention
CDC supports HIV prevention interventions to individuals at risk of HIV infection. These include adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and young men. To address the risks of HIV in AGYW, CDC supports the DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe) program. DREAMS also promotes access to clinical services and other HIV prevention approaches, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP is provided in all supported districts around Zimbabwe.
Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) is another intervention that helps to reduce HIV risk in men. As of December 2022, CDC provided technical assistance and support to MOHCC to successfully conduct 59,546 VMMCs (PEPFAR program data 2022).
HIV testing
CDC and other implementing partners support the MOHCC in providing safe HIV testing services. A status-neutral HIV testing approach is implemented to provide a gateway to quality HIV treatment and prevention services. The models include:
- Index contact testing.
- Self-testing.
- Testing within prevention programs.
- Testing in health service delivery entry platforms and communities.
Currently, the program is focused on closing HIV case finding among children <15 years old through index, diagnostic, and targeted testing.
HIV treatment program
CDC and partners collaborate with the MOHCC to expand ART to over 1.23 million Zimbabweans estimated to be living with HIV. Currently, 89 percent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Zimbabwe are receiving ART (PEPFAR program data 2021).
Through its partners, CDC Zimbabwe initiated 29,808 clients on lifelong ART in financial year 2022. Viral load coverage and suppression among PLHIV on lifelong ART is 75 percent and 97 percent, respectively. High viral load suppression is attributed to the rollout of optimized ART regimens containing dolutegravir across all age groups. Pediatric viral load suppression also reached 90 percent as a result of optimized pediatric regimens.
To improve treatment retention, 73 percent of clients are now on 3-6 multi-month dispensing of antiretrovirals. Going forward, CDC Zimbabwe is focused on coordinating with the MOHCC and stakeholders to achieve HIV epidemic control and sustain goals.
Surveys, surveillance, and program information
CDC also supports the MOHCC to scale up and roll out HIV case-based surveillance using an electronic health record system. The system uniquely identifies patients and reports data in real time for newly diagnosed and recent infections. By December 2022, 859 facilities could report data for all HIV-infected persons.
TB and HIV
To end TB by 2030, CDC supports:
- Routine screening among high-risk groups.
- Optimizing diagnosis with molecular, WHO-recommended diagnostic tests.
- Initiating TB preventive treatment (TPT) among all eligible clients.
During financial year 2022, 93 percent of PLHIV were screened for TB, with 1.6 percent screening positive. Of those who screened TB-positive, 96 percent had a sputum sample collected and sent for diagnostic testing. A high proportion of them (89 percent) had a diagnostic test done using GeneXpert.
Molecular, WHO-recommended diagnostic tests are used to optimize TB screening and diagnoses and reduce the number of missed cases. These tests include highly sensitive TB screening tools, TB LF-LAM, and digital X-rays with computer-aided diagnostics.
Since 2019, CDC has funded TPT initiation and completion for 242,095 PLHIV. To improve treatment adherence and completion, CDC supported the rollout of shorter TPT regimens of three months of isoniazid and rifapentine.
Laboratory support
CDC partners with the MOHCC to strengthen universal access to quality assured viral load/early infant diagnosis testing for all on treatment. According to the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program data, 886,806 clients accessed a viral load test in 2022.
Strategies to increase access to viral load testing include:
- A national integrated sample transportation system.
- A collaborative clinic-community laboratory interface.
- A robust, open-source Laboratory Information Management System.
- A quality management system including continuous quality improvement.
Resources
Support for CDC's global HIV and TB efforts
Our success is built on the backbone of science and strong partnerships.
- Includes health information systems, public health disease surveillance, capacity building, and quality improvement.