Manicaland province is geared to host this year's World Aids Day commemorations to be held on Sunday in Rusape.
World Aids Day is commemorated annually on December 1.
Addressing journalists on a tour of the province ahead of the day, Makoni district Aids coordinator Spencer Banguza said they have concluded all the prior preparations for the event, which is set to attract thousands from across the country.
“We are glad to be hosting this big event. Looking at the programme for the day, we are at an advanced stage, done a lot of preparatory meetings. We have a number of pre launch activities lined up through the week. We have done the groundwork that needs to be done,” he said.
Banguza said the major highlight would be a marathon, which has received overwhelming response from athletes which will be done on the day.
“The marathon is open to everyone and this year we have a category for people with HIV and registration is still open. The marathon will be starting from John Cowe Primary school for the 5km, 10 km and 21 km races.”
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“We are there to ensure that we close the tap on HIV infections and we have managed to reduce the number of new infections through initiatives like linking clients to care. We have gone a step further to ensure we provide quality treatment, care and support services.”
“We have programmes that we have on the ground for example what we call community ART treatment care and facilitators program which provides door to door ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) delivery services for stable clients taking ART in this district. We have been doing this for quite a long time,” he said.
He said they are working with different partners and have managed to rope everyone in on the HIV response.
“We had drawbacks during Covid-19, but that was when we introduced the programme to counter the effects. Drought is affecting as people need food and it's presence is also likely to affect uptake of treatment.”
He said they were also focusing on differentiated supply of ART to suit their client's needs.
The district is continually experiencing a decline in the number of new cases.
The theme for this year is, Take the rights path: My Health, My Rights.