Category: Health News

Women Should Breastfeed At Work- Minister

Healthtimes

By Michael Gwarisa WORKING environments should be conducive enough to allow women to breastfeed during working hours, Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa has said. He said this while officially opening the 2017 World Breast Feeding Week in Highfields today (3 August 2017). “When children are breast fed, they get sick less often. Employers benefit from having a more contended and productive workforce due to less employee absenteeism, increased loyalty and less staff turnover. Parental protection and other workplace policies can enable women to combine breastfeeding with paid…

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Harare Braces For Biggest City Clean Up Campaign

Healthtimes

Staff Reporter  HARARE will tomorrow (August, 3, 2017) host the biggest clean up and Wellness campaign in the history of clean-ups amid indications that the process will see the whole Central Business District (CBD) being cleaned an effort to return Harare to its Sunshine City status. The campaign has drawn participants from various stakeholders in government and the private sector and is being hosted by ZimAfro in collaboration with its partners. ZimAfro Managing Director Shepard Chakanza said all was in place for the clean up and they were just waiting…

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Lack Of Investment Hampering Breast Feeding Efforts

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New analysis shows an investment of US$4.70 per newborn could generate US$300 billion in economic gains by 2025 GENEVA/NEW YORK, 1 August 2017 – No country in the world fully meets recommended standards for breastfeeding, according to a new report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Global Breastfeeding Collective, a new initiative to increase global breastfeeding rates. The Global Breastfeeding Scorecard, which evaluated 194 nations, found that only 40 per cent of children younger than six months are breastfed exclusively (given nothing but breast…

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Stigma: The Curse of Old People Living With HIV

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By Michael Gwarisa “Go away old granny, How does someone your age get HIV, like seriously, where did you get the virus anyway?” These are some of the harsh realities older people living with the HIV virus in Zimbabwe encounter at health care centers on daily basis. In most cases, senior citizens surviving with the virus are denied access to medicines and life saving Anti Retro Viral (ARV) drugs, exposing them to even worse catastrophic circumstances such as developing HIV drug resistance. Gogo  Rudo Tenenga (67) of Chitungwiza has lived…

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MSF nurse wins HIV-TB prize for life-saving TB test research

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Staff Reporter  Zimbabwean MSF nurse and researcher Chenai Mathabire has won an HIV/TB Research Prize at this year’s International Aids Society Conference on HIV Science (IAS2017). Through a study conducted in Malawi and Mozambique, Chenai has provided strong evidence that an easy-to-use point-of-care TB LAM test, which quickly diagnoses tuberculosis (TB) in severely ill HIV patients, is feasible to use in real-life clinics with high numbers of HIV-TB patients. TB is the biggest killer of people living with advanced HIV, with over 400,000 patients dying each year from the disease.…

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WhenTo Tell My Boy/Girlfriend I am HIV+…Plight of HIV+ Adolescents

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By Michael Gwarisa  AT a certain stage in life, the desire to be loved or love someone grips us  all and the feeling to express one’s love through physical means overrides normal reasoning. Its more like ecstasy, you cant explain it! However, for young adolescents living with HIV, expressing themselves in love relationships is a bit of a challenge as they have to juggle between telling their loved ones their true HIV status or withhold the truth until a certain time. Just like any normal  children, HIV positive adolescents also…

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Prophets Fueling HIV Drug Resistance

Healthtimes

…As Zimbabwe Faces Worst Health Time Bomb…ART could Cost $6.5 billion in 2030 due HIV Drug Resistance!!!   By Michael Gwarisa LOCAL prophets who claim to have healing powers over AIDS should desist from doing so, as their claims have seen a number of HIV positive individuals on Anti Retro-viral Treatment (ART) stopping their  medication , hence fueling HIV drug resistance, a top health expert has said. The call comes hot on the heels of a World Health Organisation (WHO) warning over increased cases of an  HIV Drug Resistant  virus…

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Universities Ignoring Students Health Needs- NAC

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By Michael Gwarisa in Kadoma  THE National Aids Council (NAC), has castigated local Universities for  embarking on expansion projects without considering issues of complimentary health care services for students. Zimbabwe has over the years seen a number of Universities expanding their operations into other localities owing to increased demand of tertiary education amongst Zimbabweans. The Midlands State University (MSU) opened a new campus in Zvishavane in 2015 and recently another one in Harare as it aims to take its services to various parts of the country. Addressing Journalists, NAC, DREAMS Director,…

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Oral Sex Spreading Tongue Cancer

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By Michael Gwarisa in Kadoma  ORAL Sex has been identified as the leading driver of Tongue Cancer in the country, with a number of cases having been detected already in most parts of the country, a Cancer Association of Zimbabwe official has said. Briefing Journalists during a National Aids Council Editors Sensitisation Workshop on HIV/AIDS reporting in Kadoma,  Cancer Association of Zimbabwe Information and Evaluation Officer Lovemore Makurirofa said the same Human Papillomavirus  (HPV) which causes cervical cancer could be the reason behind the new tongue cancer cases being recorded.…

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Child Prostitution in Hopley Farm – The Vulnerability of Young Girls and the Struggle for Survival

Healthtimes

By Karen Mangwiro Antagonistic life experiences such as divorce or death of parents or caregivers, neglect and abuse by families and extended family members as well as peer pressure can leave the girl child vulnerable to various forms of self-destructive behaviour such as promiscuity among other negative behaviours. At times the girl child tries to solve the emotional pain she holds. General family problems such as broken homes, death of parents when the children are still young and the absence of a reliable guardian to care for them are the…

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