When Shaun Moyo started nursing at Harare’s Parirenyatwa Hospital in the late 1990s, wards were overflowing with dying patients, and weekends revolved around funerals instead of celebrations. Three decades later, the fight against HIV in Zimbabwe has saved thousands of lives, but health workers now face a completely different threat: indifference among teenagers and young adults.
Moyo, now 48 and working shifts across two busy public hospitals, watches a younger generation treat a once-deadly infection as an afterthought. Modern antiretroviral treatment has turned HIV into a manageable condition, which paradoxically leads some young people to drop their guard.
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Why this matters right now is simple. If teenagers dismiss preventative measures, Zimbabwe risks throwing away three decades of hard-fought public health victories.
Why progress on HIV in Zimbabwe faces fresh doubts
The turnaround achieved over the past decade remains one of Africa’s biggest public health accomplishments. According to UNAIDS Zimbabwe data, annual new infections dropped from 79,000 in 2010 to 15,000 in 2023.
Progress was even sharper among young people aged 15 to 24. In that group, yearly new infections plunged from 27,000 down to 4,400 over the same stretch.
Yet public health workers warn that falling case counts can breed a dangerous sense of safety. Family physician Dr Misheck Ruwende raised the alarm during a public address on Twitter, noting that the country risks sliding backward just when preventative medicine is at its best.
“The sad part is that this is coming at a time we have the best options to prevent HIV, from rapid testing, PrEP, condoms, PEP to injectables,” Ruwende said.
Moyo recalled reading Facebook threads among her son’s friends where one person argued that high blood pressure was worse than contracting HIV. For nurses who witnessed mass graves in the 1990s, that casual attitude feels alarming.
Regional pressures and the limits of fear messaging
Zimbabwe does not face this challenge alone. Across Eastern and Southern Africa, the virus continues to circulate heavily among adolescent girls and young women.
UNAIDS estimated that 210,000 girls and young women aged 15 to 24 acquired HIV worldwide in 2023, with 160,000 of those cases occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. In neighbouring South Africa, where 7.7 million people live with the virus, related sexually transmitted infections are climbing. Health facilities in Gauteng province treated 67,400 men for Male Urethritis Syndrome in 2023, with incidence jumping from 12 percent in 2020 to 15 percent in 2023.
Medical science continues to offer better defensive tools. The Phase 3 PURPOSE 1 trial studied lenacapavir, an injectable drug given twice a year. In that trial, co-authored by South African physician-scientist Dr Linda-Gail Bekker, zero out of 2,134 women who took the medicine acquired HIV.
However, Bekker argued that scientific breakthroughs accomplish nothing if messages push young people away.
“Beating the old drum about the horrors of HIV, and shouting to youths about condoms is not necessarily going to cut it,” she said.
Scare tactics and lectures about abstinence fall flat. Instead, specialists stress that youth HIV prevention requires honest advice, practical options, and non-judgemental medical care.
Meeting young people outside Harare health clinics
Securing PrEP access has grown tougher following recent financial strains. In March 2025, UNAIDS reported that funding disruptions to American-backed programmes in Zimbabwe hurt testing, counseling, and preventive medications for vulnerable groups.
To keep young people engaged, peer educators are bypassing formal hospital desks. In the capital, 23-year-old Angela Gutu helps coordinate pop-up stations across bus terminals, busy markets, college campuses, and sports events.
Many young people avoid Harare health clinics because they fear harsh scolding or public embarrassment from nurses. At open-air pop-up stations, they can collect rapid self-test kits, grab free condoms, and ask questions without being judged.
“It’s about speaking young people’s lingo, taking away the HIV stigma,” Gutu said. Staff on site then direct those who need daily preventative pills to nearby distribution points.
Taking mobile clinics to informal gold mines
City health authorities are also reshaping how they deliver care. Dr Innocent Hove, Harare Metropolitan Province’s Medical Officer, told reporters in August that agencies are working quickly to decentralize treatment for tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV.
Mobile healthcare trucks now travel directly into artisanal gold-mining camps and informal settlements where conventional clinics do not exist. Artisanal miners often work grueling hours and lack money for bus fares to town. Bringing diagnostic kits and medication directly to their work sites cuts those hurdles down.
Still, long-term control of HIV in Zimbabwe depends on whether teenagers take ownership of their own safety. Bongani, a local youth, is scheduled to start work as a volunteer peer educator with the health ministry in January to help turn the tide.
Source: Al Jazeera
