AT LEAST 20 percent of people living with HIV and Aids (PLWHIV) have alcohol use disorder as a result of depression, the Organisation for Public Health Interventions and Development (OPHID) says.
This comes as the country is struggling to contain drugs and substance abuse, particularly among the youth with prevalence rates exceeding 57 percent.
In an interview, OPHID deputy executive director Karen Webb said they had done a study as part of the organisation’s effort to improve the overall health of PLHIV which revealed that substance use was most prevalent in men.
“OPHID conducted the Zimbabwe Substance Use and Alcohol Screening Validation (Z-SUAV) study in collaboration with the University of Zimbabwe, and University of Washington and we implemented the study in 2024 in Gwanda and Bulawayo.
“In terms of prevalence, we found that 20 percent of the people in our study had alcohol use disorder, with men having much higher rates of 38 percent as compared to women at 10 percent.
“For young men under 30, the prevalence of alcohol use disorder was 40 percent,” she said, adding the scourge was less comcommon three percent overall, with men again having higher rates than womwomesix percent among men vs one percent among women).
“We integrated this within our existing programmes to understand what the prevalence of alcohol and substance misuse is within PLHIV in Zimbabwe because it is an area that has not been researched much when it comes to Zimbabwe.
“People come to clinics, but nurses and doctors do not normally ask if patients use drugs and that is why a screening tool would be important.”
Webb noted that treating PLHIV with alcohol use disorders would require specific recommendations for each individual considering severity of the cases that may include counselling sessions and psychotherapy.
“This initiative is an important way we can improve support to improve the health of PLHIV and attainment of national policy objectives. “We will really need to understand how we treat people with varying levels of severity in Zimbabwe, not everybody will require an intensive health education and counselling session and psychotherapy,” she said.
“So the middle stage would be going to mental health interventions, such as Friendship Bench, for support in counselling, problem-solving therapy.
Meanwhile, Z-SUAV study coprincipal investigator and University of Zimbabwe researcher Malinda Kaiyo-Utete said substance abuse could lead PLHIV to default medication hence the need for continuous screenings in clinics. “Alcohol use disorders and drugs and substance abuse can make people have the inability to control how much they take and they will only need alcohol to function.
“Large quantities of alcohol can actually damage your cognitive function, and that leads to forgetfulness, loss of memories and so forth and that has a big bearing on the management of HIV outcomes. ‘For instance, if somebody is drunk and they forget to take their medications, that has a bearing on viral load and so forth, “she said.
“The most common drugs that were used in that population were cocaine and marijuana. And we also saw that there’s a rise in the use of shisha. “We worked with an adult that is from 18 to 65 but we also found out that amongst the young men, between 20 and 30 years of age, had the highest prevalence of alcohol and drug use in the community.
“But we should also realise that this study was done in a clinical setting, and the results are biased towards people who come to the hospital. ‘We might have a higher prevalence in the community, because of the social desirability answers that people tend to give in a clinical setting”. Kaiyo utete added that plans were in place to expand the use of the screening tool to screen for alcohol use possibly in all clinics, and with the help of the ministry of Health.”