HARARE – Zimbabwean doctors yesterday said the eviction of thousands of people around the country was going to worsen diseases and disrupt HIV/AIDS treatment programmes.
In a statement to the press yesterday, the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) said the government’s clean-up exercise would result in “the exacerbation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as community structures are fractured and dispersed”.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest infection rates for HIV/AIDS with the disease claiming at least 2 500 people every week.
The doctors said the eviction and displacement of people during the government crackdown will disrupt AIDS treatment programmes resulting in "the inevitable emergence of widespread drug-resistant HIV as treatment programmes are disrupted".
At least a million people have been rendered homeless after the government demolished thousands of houses in a campaign the Harare authorities argue is meant to spruce up the image of cities and towns.

President Mugabe, who is under tremendous pressure from the international community over the evictions, has also defended the campaign as necessary to smash the illegal foreign currency parallel market blamed for the country’s economic woes.
United Nations envoy Anna Tibaijuka is already in the country to probe the mass evictions which have been condemned by the United States, Amnesty International and church groups as an assault on the rights of the poor.
ZimOnline