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Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe making strong progress towards the 90-90-90 goals
Keith Alcorn, 2016-12-12 10:10:00
Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are making strong progress towards achieving the treatment and viral suppression goals set out in the UN 90-90-90 target, and new HIV infections have declined substantially in each country since 2003, according to figures from national household surveys released last week by ICAP at Columbia University.
“New findings from Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe validate what we have only been able to previously predict in models – that our global efforts are having a measurable impact in countries with some of the most severe HIV epidemics,” said Dr. Shannon Hader, director of the CDC Division of Global HIV and Tuberculosis.
The surveys show that each country is close to meeting the targets for people on treatment and for viral suppression, but that they still have some way to go to meet the HIV diagnosis target.
The findings come from national population HIV impact assessments carried out in 2015 and 2016 to measure progress towards the 90-90-90 goals. The targets call for countries to achieve the following goals by 2020:
90% of people living with HIV diagnosed
90% of people diagnosed with HIV on antiretroviral treatment
90% of people on treatment with fully suppressed viral load
The surveys were carried out by interviewing pre-selected household members about household characteristics and potential risk factors for HIV. All participants were offered free and confidential HIV testing and counselling. Anyone who tested positive for HIV was offered a point-of-care CD4 count in their home, and had blood drawn for viral load testing. Approximately 80,000 adults and children consented to take part in the surveys across the three countries.
Surveys are taking place in 16 PEPFAR-supported countries in 2016 and 2017; the results from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are the first to be made available.
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