Overview

In Zimbabwe in 2018:

  • 1 300 000 people were living with HIV.
  • HIV incidence—the number of new HIV infections among a susceptible population during a certain time—among all people of all ages was 2.79%.
  • HIV prevalence—the percentage of people living with HIV—among adults (15–49 years) was 12.7%.
  • 38 000 people were newly infected with HIV.
  • 22 000 people died from an AIDS-related illness.

There has been progress in the number of AIDS-related deaths since 2010, with a 60% decrease, from 54 000 deaths to 22 000 deaths. The number of new HIV infections has also decreased, from 62 000 to 38 000 in the same period.

The 90–90–90 targets envision that, by 2020, 90% of people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status will be accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment will have suppressed viral loads. In terms of all people living with HIV, reaching the 90–90–90 targets means that 81% of all people living with HIV are on treatment and 73% of all people living with HIV are virally suppressed. In 2018 in Zimbabwe:

  • 90% of people living with HIV knew their status.
  • 88% of people living with HIV were on treatment.

Of all adults aged 15 years and over living with HIV, 89% were on treatment, while 76% of children aged 0–14 years living with HIV were on treatment.

Ninety-four per cent of pregnant women living with HIV accessed antiretroviral medicine to prevent transmission of the virus to their baby, preventing 11 000 new HIV infections among newborns. Early infant diagnosis―the percentage of HIV-exposed infants tested for HIV before eight weeks of age―stood at 63% in 2018.

Women are disproportionally affected by HIV in Zimbabwe: of the 1 200 000 adults living with HIV, 730 000 (60.83%) were women. New HIV infections among young women aged 15–24 years were more than double those among young men: 9000 new infections among young women, compared to 4200 among young men. HIV treatment was higher among women than men, however, with 93% of adult women living with HIV on treatment, compared to 83% of adult men.

Same-sex sexual relations are illegal in Zimbabwe.

Only 46.44% of women and men 15–24 years old correctly identified ways of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV.

In 2017, the percentage of people living with HIV and tuberculosis who were being treated for both diseases was 62.0%, up from 49.7% in 2015.


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Stories
8 March 2019
People living with HIV face major challenges in Zimbabwe
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22 March 2017
Bringing HIV services to hard-to-reach people in Victoria Falls
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9 December 2016
Training on age of consent manual piloted in Zimbabwe
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1 December 2016
UNAIDS welcomes compelling results of progress in AIDS response from surveys supported by the United States of America in three African countries
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19 October 2016
Using market research for long-term sustainability of VMMC in Zimbabwe and Zambia
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3 December 2015
Voluntary medical male circumcisions reach 10 million in sub-Saharan Africa
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Contact

countries_zimbabwe_contact

Name: 
Girmay HAILE
Role: 
UNAIDS Country Director
Phone: 
+233302771575