By Lumbiwe Mwanza
TREATMENT Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC) says the Government, in collaboration with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) should come up with an efficient plan to raise awareness of the new injectable ARV.
Zambia with the Support by the United States Government has been picked as one of the five countries in the world by the United States Government to be supported with procurement of a long acting injectable ARV called cabotegravir (CAB-LA) this year.
Speaking to The Scoop, TALC Executive Director Felix Mwanza says this is a welcome development as previous efforts by the civil society as well as the Government of having such a drug in Zambia have not yielded the desired results.
“We have been pushing this agenda to happen and we are happy that finally this has come to pass but what is needed now is to ensure that more awareness is put across all communities to avoid resistance from citizens,” Mr. Mwanza said.
Mr. Mwanza notes that usually, there is some form of resistance from members of the public whenever there is a new drug but says with good awareness programs, such challenges are easily addressed.