Healthtimes |

#BREAKING: Cholera Vaccine for Chimanimani and Chipinge

April 2, 2019April 3, 2019 Healthtimes

THE Health and Childcare Ministry has requested over 470 000 cholera vaccines to cover Chimanimani and Chipinge, the hardest hit areas in Zimbabwe by Cyclone Idai, HealthTimes has learnt. By Kudakwashe Pembere The vaccination program is targeting areas positioned close to Mozambique where cholera cases have been reported. In an interview, Health Ministry Epidemiology and Disease Control Director Dr Portia Manangazira said given closeness of Zimbabwe’s eastern neighbor to the affected areas of Chipinge and Chimanimani, they need 475 000 vaccines. “So we have already requested about 475 000…

Zim Team Takes Community Mental Health Model To Rwanda and Liberia

April 2, 2019April 2, 2019 Healthtimes

THE Friendship Bench after successful adoption in the United States of America (USA) and other African countries expects to scale up their model to Rwanda and Liberia. By Kudakwashe Pembere The Friendship Bench project funded by Grand Challenges Canada developed a low-cost, task-sharing initiative to train village and community health workers to deliver a basic psychological intervention for common mental disorders. This project which was started 13 years ago by Professor Dixon Chibanda, has since been rolled out to Harare and Gweru, and is being piloted for rural settings in…

Cross Boarder Activity Fertile Ground For Multi Drug Resistant TB

April 2, 2019April 2, 2019 Healthtimes

FOLLOWING a positive diagnosis of Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DR TB) in 2010, life for Mr Mthobisi Ndebele (45) from Makokoba, Bulawayo unfolded like a horror movie script in front of his eyes. By Michael Gwarisa recently in Bulawayo Having worked as a Malayitsha for the better part of his life (cross boarder transporter) plying the South Africa /Zimbabwe route, he watched his fortunes fade into oblivion as his possessions, family, friends, and not forgetting his health vanish into an abyss of uncertainty, leaving him broke, jobless and hopeless. At…

UN Refugee Agency airlifts relief support to survivors of Cyclone Idai

April 1, 2019 Healthtimes

[dropcap]THE[/dropcap] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) handed over to Government today some 80 MT relief items, including family tents, plastic tarpaulins, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, solar lamps and kitchen sets to support 10,000 Zimbabweans affected by cyclone Idai. “The devastating cyclone has left people in dire need of humanitarian support,” said UNHCR Country Representative Robert Tibagwa while handing over the airlifted relief items at Robert Mugabe International Airport. “UNHCR supplies will help provide shelter and basic items to survivors, including women and children, as they have lost everything.”…

US Gvt Withholds Funding To NGOS Supporting Abortion

April 1, 2019 Healthtimes

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will withhold funding from foreign nongovernmental organizations that give money to foreign groups that perform abortions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday. SOURCE: New York Times In an expansion of the administration’s anti-abortion policies, Mr. Pompeo also said the government was “fully enforcing” a law that prohibits groups from using United States aid to lobby on abortion issues. “We will enforce a strict prohibition on backdoor funding schemes and end-runs around our policy,” Mr. Pompeo said. “American taxpayer dollars will not be used…

Bring the most injured Cyclone Idai survivors, says Avenues Clinic

March 29, 2019 Healthtimes

AVENUES Clinic says it is ready to assist Cyclone Idai victims who need delicate surgery . By Kuda Pembere Avenues Clinic Corporate Communications officer, Mrs Cordellia Shereni, says this is their way of giving assistance to those who desperately need it. “The Avenues Clinic is the only facility in the country that is equipped and resourced to handle these major injuries and efforts are still ongoing to identify more cases of those critically injured. The clinic is also appealing to those who might know of such cases of Cyclone Idai…

Zim To Scale Up Communities Targeted TB Screening

March 29, 2019March 29, 2019 Healthtimes

THE Ministry of Health and Care (MoHCC) has set targets to expand targeted community screening for Tuberculosis (TB) in high risk areas, amidst indications that the national treatment coverage rate is still very low, currently at 71 percent against a national target of 90 percent. By Michael Gwarisa in Mangwe District Through a program dubbed Targeted Screening for Active TB among High Risk groups which is funded by The Global Fund and USAID Challenge TB and is being implemented by The Union and FACT, the initiative identifies priority districts every…

Gvt Launches New Mental Health Strategic Plan

March 29, 2019 Healthtimes

THE National Mental Health Services Strategy for the period 2019 to 2023 launched on Friday is set to improve quality of patient care, service delivery, mental health awareness and community empowerment, a Cabinet minister said. By Kudakwashe Pembere Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo officiating the launch said the plan is expected to among other things improve to access of mental healthcare services. “There is a need to decentralized mental healthcare and integrating into general medical healthcare from primary healthcare level with programs such as the WHOMental Health…

HIV/TB Co-infection Drives TB Mortality In Matebeleland

March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 Healthtimes

MATEBELELAND province currently has the highest TB deaths standing at 19 percent as of 2018 owing to increased cases of HIV/TB co-infection, a health official has said. By Michael Gwarisa in Bulawayo In an interview on the side-lines of the World TB Day commemorations conference in Bulawayo which also marked the presentation of Zimbabwe’s first national TB patient cost survey which was done by the Ministry of health in collaboration with The Union through funding from USAID, Deputy Director Aids and TB Unit in the Ministry of health, Dr Charles…