MARTIN MAWAYA
GWERU – For years, Laiza Zvakurumbira, a 57-year-old mother from Mkoba who is HIV+, found comfort in knowing her viral load was under control, thanks to the life saving antiretroviral therapy (ART).
Diagnosed with HIV in 2006 and placed on ART in 2009, her health has since been complicated by asthma, hypertension, heart problems and arthritis.
The string of chronic conditions forced her into a daily struggle marked by higher medical costs, reduced productivity, and uncertainty about the future.
“My life is becoming difficult and some of the duties that I used to do to fend for my family have become impossible, as I now need to fork out US$60 per month for my medication,” she said.
A widow caring for eight grandchildren, Zvakurumbira survives on a stipend from voluntary stress-management work, but says it is not enough to keep her family afloat.
“I’m facing hard times,” she said. “The government should provide NCD medications the same way they do with antiretroviral drugs to lessen the burden on the poor.”
Her plight mirrors a growing crisis in Zimbabwe, where progress in the fight against HIV is being quietly undermined by the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
A growing double burden
Health experts warn that hypertension, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory illnesses now threaten to erode gains made in reducing HIV prevalence, which fell from 29 percent in 1999 to about 11 percent in 2021.
The National Aids Council (NAC) is now rethinking its traditional mandate as NCDs are emerging as ‘silent epidemics.’
They said lifestyles and changing disease patterns are undermining decades of progress in the fight against HIV.
“We have been enjoying some huge positives in our fight against the spread of the pandemic. Of late those gains are being eroded by lifestyles,” said NAC Midlands Provincial Manager, Mambeu Shumba.
Statistics show that NCDs now account for nearly one in three deaths in Zimbabwe, and in the Midlands Province alone, where more than 165 000 people live with HIV, the combination of chronic diseases and viral infection have been described as “double jeopardy.”
An unprepared health system
Analysts note that Zimbabwe is undergoing an epidemiological transition, where infectious diseases are slowly being replaced by chronic illnesses as the leading causes of death.
Yet the health system, built around fighting communicable diseases, remain ill-prepared for this shift.
Workplaces are being identified as critical sites for wellness programmes to curb absenteeism, loss of productivity, and severe health outcomes for HIV-positive employees.
The media has also been urged to rethink its narratives, with experts warning that coverage often overlooks NCDs while reinforcing stigma around HIV.
More sensitive and inclusive reporting is being encouraged to foster healthier social attitudes.
The economic toll
Beyond the human suffering, untreated NCDs are pushing households deeper into poverty and inflating national health budgets, with NAC warning against the “cost of inaction”.
Globally, NCDs are responsible for 15 million premature deaths before the age of 70 each year, with 86 percent occurring in low- and middle-income countries, according to UNAIDS.
Experts argue that Zimbabwe needs a united response against NCDs, similar to the national effort that brought HIV under control.
But unlike HIV in its early years, NCDs rarely make the headlines.
“The danger with NCDs is that they don’t command headlines until it’s too late,” said NCD advocate Jacob Ngwenya. “But unless we act now, the victories against HIV will look like a hollow success.”
For patients like Zvakurumbira, the struggle is no longer about one condition.
It is about surviving within a health system racing against time to confront a double burden that threatens to erode Zimbabwe’s hard-won progress.
