(p) Capacity building of health care providers at all levels so as to equip them with the needed
child and maternal nutrition skills and knowledge for provision of counselling, education and
mentorship to mothers, child care takers, families and communities.
(q) Conducting regular monitoring and evaluation of policies, guidelines and regulations aimed
at improving nutrition status especially of women and children.
(f) HIV/AIDS
154. The State Party complied with the foregoing Committee Observations by undertaking a number
of policy, legislative and administrative measures. One of milestones recorded by the State Party during the
period under report is the enactment of the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act in 2008,184 which
applies in Tanzania Mainland only. This law provides for the care and treatment of persons affected by or
victims of HIV/AIDS; to provide support and promote public health in relation to HIV/AIDS; and to provide
for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. In Zanzibar, the State Party has also, through the Revolutionary
Government of Zanzibar, adopted the National HIV/AIDS Policy (2004), which strives to curb the pandemic
in Zanzibar. It also sets out prevention and intervention strategies in respect of HIV/AIDS through the
Zanzibar Aids Commission (ZAC). In order to give this policy force of law, the State Party has finished
developing a Bill on HIV/AIDS which has already been consultatively discussed by stakeholders, respective
parliamentary steering committees and the Principal Secretaries’ Committee; and it is due to be tabled before
the Zanzibar House of Representatives in the next session.
(i) Awareness of HIV/AIDS
155. In Tanzania, HIV/AIDS prevention programs focus messages and efforts on three important
aspects of behaviour: using condoms, limiting the number of sexual partners (or staying faithful to one
partner), and delaying sexual debut (abstinence) of the young and the never married. To ascertain whether
programmes have effectively communicated at least two of these messages, respondents were prompted with
specific questions about whether it is possible to reduce the chance of getting the AIDS virus by having just
one faithful sexual partner and using a condom at every sexual encounter. There is widespread knowledge of
HIV/AIDS prevention methods. Nearly nine in ten respondents (87 percent of women and 90 percent of men)
know that the chance of becoming infected with the AIDS virus is reduced by limiting sexual intercourse to
one uninfected partner who has no other partners. Three-quarters of respondents (76 percent each of women
and men) know that the chance of contracting HIV/AIDS is reduced by using condoms.
156. There are notable differences in knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention. Although age differentials
are inconsistent, youth age 15-19 appear to have lower levels of knowledge than those in older age groups.
Knowledge of HIV prevention methods is lowest among those who have never had sex. Levels of knowledge
of preventive methods are higher in urban than in rural areas. In general, respondents in the Mainland are
more likely than those in Zanzibar to be aware of various HIV prevention methods. For instance, 71 percent
of men on the Mainland and 44 percent in Zanzibar are aware that both condom use and limiting sex to one
partner reduces the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Variation by region is particularly striking. In Mainland,
for example, 88 percent of women in Dodoma are aware of both methods of HIV/AIDS prevention compared
with 50 percent of women in Mwanza. For men, knowledge of both methods ranges from 88 percent in
Dodoma to 47 percent in Arusha
(ii) Knowledge on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT)
157. Increasing the level of general knowledge of HIV transmission from mother to child and
reducing the risk of transmission using antiretroviral drugs (ARTs) is critical to reducing mother-to-child
transmission (MTCT) of HIV during pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding. To assess MTCT knowledge,
respondents were asked if the virus that causes AIDS can be transmitted from a mother to a child through
breastfeeding and whether a mother with HIV can reduce the risk of transmission to the baby by taking
certain drugs during pregnancy. Data shows that, 89 percent of women and 81 percent of men know that HIV
can be transmitted through breastfeeding. Somewhat fewer (75 percent of women and 67 percent of men)
know that the risk of MTCT can be reduced through the use of ARTs during pregnancy. Seventy-two percent
of women and 61 percent of men are aware that HIV can be transmitted through breastfeeding and that the
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