Health Communicators Forum Hosts Injectable PrEP Media and Science Café
Health Communicators Forum Hosts Injectable PrEP Media and Science Café
By Michael Gwarisa
Zimbabwe’s Health Communicators Forum (HCF), recently hosted a Media and Science Café program to sensitise local health Journalists with accurate information regarding the newly launched long acting Injectable Pre-Exposure Prophylaxes (CAB-LA).
This comes hot on the heels of the arrival of 2000 doses of the injectable PrEP in Zimbabwe. This marks the third pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) product to be introduced in demonstration sites under a study for catalysing access to new prevention products to stop HIV (CATALYST).
Speaking on the development, Ann Miti, the HCF Chairperson in Zimbabwe said empowering Journalists with information was a public health need.
The COVID-19 was our best teacher. We learnt that information gaps leave room for misinformation and disinformation. Now we want to bridge that gap and ensure we promote accurate and factual reporting of this biomedical development ahead of time,” said Miti.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care was also in attendance and took JournalistS through a two hour long session on the Injectable PrEP.
HIV prevention clinical officer in the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s AIDS and TB Programme, Dr Idah Moyo, said Zimbabweans could now access the injectable PrEP at the 15 demonstration sites.
“CAB-LA is a long-term injection for pre-exposure prophylaxis that is meant to prevent the acquisition of HIV for people that are HIV negative and are at a substantial risk of acquiring HIV. Since it is meant to prevent HIV in people who are at substantial risk, this intervention will be implemented in the demonstration sites which means we will get learning insights from those sites and that will inform the country in the rollout of the CAB-LA in the whole country,” she said.
Dr Moyo added that healthcare providers would equip clients who came to the sites with the knowledge to be able to make informed choices from the available PrEP products and for them to choose a relevant and appropriate method according to their needs, preferences, and lifestyles.
The Health Communicators Forum Science Café program has held several sensitisation meetings with experts from various fields from government, private sections, Non-Governmental Organisations, development partners and civil social organisations.