Category: Health News

Hatcliff Residents Use Chlorine Tablets For Washing Clothes

Healthtimes

“We thank CWHG and the City Health department for installing these inline chlorinates, we are now assured that we wont have abuse of tablets as they are enclosed in the Chlorinators…..” By Michael Gwarisa RESIDENTS in Hatcliff area in Harare are using Chlorine tablets meant for purifying water as washing soap despite the  area having been declared a hot Typhoid zone due to the  Typhoid outbreak which swept across the area early this year, HealthTimes can reveal. These revelations were made by Hatcliff Councilor Naboth Manyengera during a Clean-up campaign…

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WHO Moves To Curb 2nd Line ARV Stock-outs

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By Michael Gwarisa  THE World Health Organisation (WHO) is in the process of engaging Pharmaceutical and drug manufacturing companies to negotiate on the pricing of second line Anti Retro-viral drugs to assist Zimbabwe and other struggling third world countries to ensure they access the lifesaving drugs at affordable prices. The development come in the midst of reports that Zimbabwe is experiencing massive second line Abacavir ARV drug stock-outs, putting more than 30 000 lives at risk of developing HIV drug resistance owing to discontinued uptake of  ARVs.  Briefing Journalists in…

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The Plight Of Malnourished HIV Positive Mothers In Hopely

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“We end up eating our baby’s food because the situation at times becomes so bad, there wont be any food in the house…” By Michael Gwarisa  IT’S a Wednesday morning and hundreds of women both young and old are queuing at a World Food Program (WFP) container cubicle at Hopley Satellite Clinic to get their monthly allocations of fortified food for them and their young ones. Amongst the women is one weary looking young woman seating by the long bench with her baby clutched on her back. A gaze deep…

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#BREAKING: NAC Targets Informal Sector Over AIDS Levy

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By Michael Gwarisa THE National Aids Council (NAC) is engaging government and policy makers to consider taxing the informal sector in a bid to beef up the Aids Levy coffers which are reportedly dwindling. Briefing Journalists during a Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) media engagement meeting in the capital, NAC’s National Advocacy Coordinator Trust Govera said AIDS levy collections fell in 2016 and measures were currently underway to increase domestic financing for HIV related programs and taxing the informal sector was one of them. “Government is in the process…

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Strict Medical Aid Law On The Cards

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By Michael Gwarisa PUBLIC consultations to the Medical Aid Societies Bill have commenced amid indications that the new law could usher in provisions that could completely change the medical aid societies sector’s operations. Briefing medical practitioners and members of various medical aid societies during the Medical Aid public consultative meeting this morning, Pathologist in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Maxwell Hove said the proposed bill was meant plug leakages and loopholes that currently exist under the current Statutory Instrument. “If you look closely, you see that there are…

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Allocate Foreign Currency Towards ARV Procurement-CWGH

Healthtimes

By Michael Gwarisa  THE Community Working Group on Heath (CWGH), has  called on government to prioritise allocation of foreign currency towards the procurement of Anti Retro Viral medicines ARVs amid revelations of massive ARV stockouts at public health centres and pharmacies. CWGH Executive director Itai Josh Rusike said it was disheartening that Zimbabwe which over the years made tremendous gains in reducing HIV/AIDS related deaths through multi-sectoral efforts, is now experiencing a serious shortage of Abacavir – a second line ARV drug to the extent that people taking that drug are…

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Zim Hosts Regional Radiotheraphy Workshop

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Staff Reporter  ZIMBABWE is this week hosting the IAEA (AFRA) Regional training workshop on Radiotherapy in a bid to boost capacity amongst radiographers from across the continent. Speaking during the event’s official opening, Health and Child Care minister Dr David Parirenyatwa said the cancer scourge was growing in Africa and there was urgent need to find find homegrown solutions to the crisis. “Radiotherapy is one of the often neglected but is one of the critical areas in our hospitals. More and more cancers are being discovered in our country with…

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Zim ARV Shortage Could Trigger Massive Drug Resistance

Healthtimes

By Michael Gwarisa  ZIMBABWE today (21/08/2017) woke up to devastating news that the country’s public health and pharmaceutical institutions have been hit by massive Anti Retro Viral (ARV) drug shortages. According to an article in the Herald, HIV positive people on second line Abacavir ARV drugs are the most affected and they are being given a week’s supply of the drug instead of the traditional three moths supply due to stock outs. It is believed that the huge stock outs and shortages in drug supplies are being exacerbated by the…

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Hepatitis E Plagues Nigeria’s Borno State

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HealthTimes Reporter While the humanitarian situation has improved to some extent in several locations in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, it is disturbing that hundreds of people in the Ngala camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) have been infected with Hepatitis E due to poor living conditions and flooding, MSF has said. The highly contagious disease has spread quickly through the camp with 400 cases reported and four pregnant women dying in the past two months. “The situation in Ngala is very worrying,” says Nicoletta Bellio, Doctors Without Borders (MSF)’s medical…

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Medical professionals to review Medical Aid Society Regulatory Authority Bill

Healthtimes

By Kudakwashe Pembere Medical professionals will tomorrow discuss the Medical Aid Society Regulatory Authority Bill draft which was designed to address the discord between medical insurers, doctors and patients. Zimbabwe Medical Association president Dr Agnes Mahovha told journalosts on the sidelines of the ongoing ZIMA congress that they recently received the draft bill for assessment. The association has for quite some time lobbying the government to craft such a bill. “We received the draft of the medical aid society regulatory authority bill. And we have started go through it very…

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