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Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
THE government has made great strides in rolling out a more effective Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) Anti-Retroviral Therapy which is expected to enhance drug adherence for people living with HIV.

Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa, yesterday said the country was in the process of switching all people on HIV treatment to a new single tablet per day from the previous three pills to make it easier for patients not to default on taking medication.

The Fixed Dose Combination combines three drugs Tenofovir, Lamivudine and Efavirenz, into one. People living with HIV who have not yet switched drugs are taking two different drugs, two in the morning and one in the evening.

With FDC, they will now be taking one tablet a day, lessening the drug burden and enhancing adherence to treatment among the people living with HIV.

“We’re making progress towards switching all people on HIV treatment to a single tablet,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.

He said the government was also working on making it mandatory for anyone diagnosed of HIV virus to be put on treatment.

Minister Parirenyatwa said previously people were put on ART when their CD4 count was at 350 before they moved to 500.

“We, however, want everyone with the virus to start receiving the drugs irrespective of their CD4 count,” he said.

Dr Parirenyatwa said funding was a major challenge hindering the government from achieving the set goal in time.

He, however, could not say off hand how many people living with the virus who were on ART in the country have since been switched to the new drug.

There are about 1,4 million people living with HIV, of which 187,000 of them are children under the age of 15 years. About 955,000 are receiving ARVs with the remainder still on the waiting list.

HIV prevalence rate stands at 15 percent down from over 26 percent in 1997.

Zimbabwe commenced its ART programme in April 2004, with the National Aids Trust Fund being the major source of funds.