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Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
THE National Aids Council (NAC) in partnership with Southern African Aids Trust (SAT) has launched an integrated HIV/Aids counselling, testing and cervical cancer screening pilot programme in Silobela, Kwekwe district.

In an interview after visiting the area on Wednesday, NAC communications director Ms Madeline Dube said the programme was mainly targeting young pregnant women in order to increase access to cervical cancer screening.

She said NAC was happy with the progress of the pilot programme and would soon give a comprehensive report on the observations they made on the pilot project.

“We launched a pilot programme for cervical cancer screening which also involves HIV testing and counselling.

“This is because 60 percent of these cancers are HIV related. We are hoping that the programme would be spread to other districts in the province and ensure that there is increased accessibility to cervical cancer screening among young women,” she said.

Ms Dube said more than $650 000 was needed for the programme to be successfully implemented in all the country’s districts.

“We would want the programme to be implemented in all the country’s 65 districts. The equipment for the cervical cancer screening costs about $10 000. If we multiply that amount by 65 we get $650 000,” she said.

Ms Dube said NAC was in the process of compiling comprehensive information, education and communication (IEC) on HIV and Aids material for the hearing impaired after receiving funding from Global Fund to craft a strategic plan for specific interventions for the visually impaired and the hearing impaired so that they have access to information.

She said the process was slowed down after the organisation which they had partnered stopped operations due to lack of funding.

Ms Dube said sign language had so many dialects such that one needs to understand at least 1 000 symbols to follow the language.

She said the Zimbabwean situation was intricate in the sense that every sign language is peculiar to each learning institution and there is no universal language for the hearing impaired.

Ms Dube however said NAC was in the process of working on the modalities of coming up with comprehensive interventions for the hearing impaired.

@Munya_Musiiwa