People living with HIV are pleading with government for food supplements in clinics where they collect their Anti-Retroviral drugs as many are taking medication on empty stomachs.
Zimbabwe is experiencing drought which was caused by poor rainfall.
The El Nino induced drought has exposed over 4 million people to famine and are in dire need of food supplies.
The situation is intense in the Northern and Southern parts of the country where there are reports of people sleeping without eating, with some even said to be surviving on wild fruits.
Zimbabwe HIV and AIDS Activist Union Community Trust ZHAAUCT President Stanley Takaona told ZimEye.com  in Mhondoro this week that in their assessment they had discovered that people living with HIV are forced to take their drugs on empty stomachs.
“The situation is worse to people who are taking ARVs, because they cannot take them without food. We have witnessed people surviving on tree-barks in some rural areas we have visited on HIV treatment monitoring programme and some of these people are our members,” said Takaona.
“Even those who drink beer know that they need to eat first before drinking and what more people who are on ARVs? So what we are saying to government and other partners is that there is an urgent need now for the placement of food supplements at the clinics where we take our ARVs ,” said Takaona.
Takaona said if government does not prioritise people living with HIV in the food distribution programme they shall see hundreds of their members defaulting treatment and subsequently dying.
There are 1.5 million Zimbabweans who are living with HIV with slightly over 800 000 being on treatment.
The World Food programme on last week announced that it was extending the food assistance provision programme to the country’s vulnerable communities to next year because biting hunger which has hit Zimbabwe.