KWIMBA District Council has launched the 'Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness' project that aims at reducing the rate of disease transmission.
The District HIV/AIDS Control Coordinator, Dr Ally Sadik said that Kwimba has a total of 13,268 infected people, who are taking Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
"Our plan is to reduce the rate of HIV transmission to young people, especially those aged between 15 and 24 years. The 2017 survey showed that the disease killed 1,622 people within three years (from 2017 backward), with youth deaths standing at 1050, which was equivalent to 67 per cent. Children' deaths were 210," said the Coordinator.
According to him, the district has been imploring various measures, which include the introduction of centres for prevention of mother-to child transmission, with about 40 centres already made available.
He mentioned some of the centres as Sumve and Ngudu hospitals as well as Nyambiti, Malya Nyamilama and Mwanashimba health centres.
"Again, given the fact that circumcision plays a big role in fighting HIV/AIDS transmissions, we have succeeded to open up male circumcision centres at Ngudu, Bujingwa, Nyamikoma and Malemvi health centres. Circumcision reduces the risk by 60 per cent," affirmed Dr Sadik.
The Coordinator for the newly introduced project from Sumve Hospital, Mr Sebastian Gregory, said that among the approaches to fight the transmission is to encourage the use of ARVs.
