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Boreholes Now HIV and Pregnancies Traps For Young Girls

January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 Michael Gwarisa

THE prevailing water crisis in Harare and other parts of the country exposes girls and young women to HIV infections and early unintended pregnancies (EUPs) owing to the lengthy hours they spend in long winding queues and boreholes where they end up fraternising with individuals who harbor evil intentions. By Michael Gwarisa Speaking at the launch of the Harare Zimbabwe Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (ZIMPHIA), Harare province acting provincial development coordinator Mrs Catherine Kampila said the water crisis in Harare had created a fertile breeding ground for risky sexual behaviour…

Machete gangs: A mental health perspective

January 15, 2020 Healthtimes

Noreen Wini-Dari & Douglas Zvomuya Zimbabwe has experienced so much traumatic events across generations. Each generation has its own unique and fair share of trauma. With a poor focus on mental health within our country, most people remain untreated and may become perpetrators of violence at family, community or national level. Some of the common manifestations of poor mental health include substance abuse, suicide, depression and various forms of psychopathology. The violent killings that have gripped our nation perpetrated by what have become known as machete gangs can at best be…

Harare Door to Door HIV Survey Launched

January 14, 2020January 14, 2020 Michael Gwarisa

THE team conducting the 2019-2020 Zimbabwe Population HIV Based Assessment (ZIMPHIA) survey will be leading a door to door gathering and collating of HIV related data with the aim of assessing the progress as well as identifying gaps that could hinder the realisation of the 2030 goal of ending AIDS. By Michael Gwarisa The Harare launch follows the successful commencement of Phase 2 which kicked off after a short festive season sabbatical. Phase one to the survey was completed in December where a community response rate of at least 95…

Novartis NCDs Medication Zim Bound

January 14, 2020January 15, 2020 Healthtimes

ZIMBABWE in next two months will receive non-communicable diseases (NCDs) medication it purchased from Switzerland headquartered pharmaceutical manufacturing company Novartis. By Kudakwashe Pembere Briefing the press in a meeting graced by the Novartis team, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said this development follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties in June last year in Switzerland during the World Health Assembly. This time they are focusing on NCDs especially the cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, respiratory ailments and so on. We are very grateful…

Medical Aid Coverage Drops Below 10 Percent

January 13, 2020January 13, 2020 Healthtimes

MEDICAL Aid coverage among Zimbabweans as of last year must have dropped from the previous figure of 10 percent owing to the continued economic decline greatly reducing citizens’ capacity to spend and invest towards their healthcare. By Kudakwashe Pembere The Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe (AHFoZ) issued new pricing guidelines in November last year to cushion members against huge co-payments and shortfalls. The adjusted rates have prompted members to either downgrade packages or drop health insurance completely. Responding to HealthTimes, Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe chief executive officer…

CSOs Pressure Gvt To Appoint New NAC Board and CEO

January 13, 2020 Michael Gwarisa

THE National AIDS Council (NAC) which has gone for more than 365 days with neither a substantive board nor Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has come under fire from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) who believe the development was impacting negatively on the national HIV response. By Michael Gwarisa Health and Child Care Minister, Dr Obadiah Moyo dissolved the NAC board a year ago a few weeks after former NAC CEO, Dr Tapuwa Magure had resigned. Since January 2019, Mr Raymond Yekeye the NAC Operations Manager and Mr Alfred Manenji the Finance…

US Government Delivers 2, 1 Million Bottles Of TLD To Zim

January 10, 2020 Healthtimes

THE United States Government through USAID’s supply chain and procurement project has delivered 2, 1 million bottles of Tenofovir-Lamivudine-Dolutegravir (TLD) to Zimbabwe. By Kudakwashe Pembere Zimbabwe transitioned to this new regimen with the Dolutegravir component in May 2018 said to have less side effects than Efavirenz. The United States Government USAID’s supply chain and procurement project has delivered 2.1 million bottles of TLD to support the transition to this new treatment regimen,” said USAID. Zimbabwe has about 1, 3 million people living with HIV with 1, 1 million placed on…

Prohibition Of Service Provision By Medical Aid Societies Challenged

January 9, 2020January 9, 2020 Healthtimes

CIMAS Group Chief Executive Officer Mr Vuli Ndlovu on Thursday vented his reservations on the Medical Aid Regulatory Bill prohibiting medical aid societies into service provision. By Kudakwashe Pembere With medical service providers lobbying for this move, the Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo has pushed for this bill to be approved by Cabinet. Speaking at an information campaign launch at CIMAS head office, Mr Ndlovu said he is against the prohibition part. “The next issue I want to say on the bill is the story coming out…

One In Every Four Children Not Registered- UNICEF

January 8, 2020January 8, 2020 Michael Gwarisa

DATA released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicate that one in four children under the age 5 (166 million), on average, are not registered in the world today. By Michael Gwarisa According to a publication by UNICEF called “Birth Registration for Every Child by 2030: Are we on track?” children under five fail to get registration owing to a plethora of barriers which range from poverty, long distance to health facilities among others. And even when they are, they may not have proof of registration. The reasons are…

Children Nutrition Status Improves In Zim: MICS

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020 Healthtimes

ZIMBABWE made great strides between 2014 and 2019 in improving the nutritional status of children which saw reduction in stunting, wasting, underweight and overweight, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019 states. By Kudakwashe Pembere The MICS was designed by UNICEF in the 1990s to assist countries in filling data gaps on children’s and women’s wellbeing for tracking progress toward World Summit for Children Goals, in 1995 and 2000. Giving the findings, Zimbabwe Statistical Agency technical committee co-lead of this survey Mr Handrick Chigiji said there was a reduction in…