Tag: #Itai Rusike

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Cholera: Experts call for access to clean water

Credits: Newsday By Lorraine Muromo and Vanessa Gonye | Mar. 30, 2023

health experts have urged government to ensure citizens have access to clean potable water to stop the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera.

The country has witnessed a number of cholera cases with suspected cases in 10 provinces numbering 267, while 209 recoveries and two deaths were recorded. Cabinet on Tuesday approved a budget of US$24 168 353 for cholera preparedness and response plan.

Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai Rusike said to effectively deal with cholera, government should deal with fundamental public health issues like access to water.

“The current cholera outbreak is occurring in the context of frequent water and power cuts, and a breakdown of rubbish collection. Advice to boil water is difficult to follow during water and power cuts. The situation on the ground indicates that while water and sanitation infrastructure exists, these are old and malfunctioning and tariff structures are needed to protect poor households’ access,” Rusike said.

He said unsafe environments continued to be a health threat, particularly for poor households and should be more focused on high-density suburbs and rural areas, where significant gaps remain in terms of access to safe water and sanitation.

Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Association of Zimbabwe president Johannes Marisa said while government’s US$24 million pledge towards fighting cholera was welcome, water and sanitation issues should be prioritised.

“It’s needless to fight symptoms when the predisposing factors are dominant, water and sanitation should be robust and up to standard if we are going to contain cholera. Monitoring and surveillance is also important, as well as education on cholera and its symptoms.”

 

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Zim cholera cases rise to 98

Credits: Newsday By Vanessa Gonye | Mar. 17, 2023

ZIMBABWE recorded 31 new suspected cholera cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 98, with health experts, calling on local authorities to improve access to water and sanitation to avert a national disaster.

In a daily situation report on Wednesday, the Health and Child Care ministry said there was one casualty, while three of the suspected cases tested positive to the diarrhoeal disease on the day.

“The 31 new suspected cholera cases and 3 laboratory confirmed cases were reported today (Wednmesday). These were reported from Centenary (15), Beitbridge (11), Chegutu (4) and Chivi (1),” the ministry said.

“Fourteen of the suspected cases and one suspected death brought in dead (BID) were Mozambican nationals from Kadunje Village who sought treatment at Chiwenga Clinic, Centenary district, Mashonaland Central province, bordering Mozambique.”

The first two cholera case were recorded in Chegutu last month.

“As of 15 March 2023, one case is hospitalised at Chivi District Hospital Cholera Treatment Unit (CTU), Masvingo province. Zimbabwe has 98 suspected cholera cases, eight confirmed cases, 97 recoveries and one death,” the ministry said.

The country’s worst cholera outbreak occurred in 2008, which left more than 4 000 dead and another 40 000 infected.

Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai Rusike said recurrent cholera outbreaks exposed lack of maintenance of the country’s water and sewer reticulation infrastructure.

“Inadequate access to water and sanitation infrastructure is a major source of health challenges and disease outbreaks such as cholera,” Rusike said.

“The aging and unrepaired sewer systems, waste put in sewers due to poor waste collection, illegal waste dumps, overflowing septic tanks and frequent water and power cuts are also causative factors. Most sewerage reticulation systems and treatment works are in a state of disrepair, raising the risk of diarrhoeal diseases including cholera.”

Tinashe Mundawarara, a health policy specialist said Zimbabwe needs to improve its access to water and sanitation.

“From a policy perspective, our health system will always be judged on its responsiveness, that is, will the Ministry of Health be able to stop the spread and at the same time ensure adequate health care provision for those with immediate need? The next few days will be critical on these two issues and funding will be an urgent need,” Mundawarara said.

 

 

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More men dying than women: ZimStat

Credits: Newsday By Priveledge Gumbodete | Mar. 15, 2023

ZIMBABWEAN men are dying more than women, latest statistics from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) have revealed.

The report, based on the 2022 population and housing census, shows that 120 070 deaths were recorded during the census with 53,6% of the dead being men and 46,4% being women.

Last year, ZimStat preliminary national census results revealed that females constitute the majority of the population, numbering 7 889 421 or 52%, compared to the male population of 7 289 588 (48%).

This was also followed by another set of results showing that life expectancy for females now stands at 68 years compared to male life expectancy which is 61,2 years.

“A total of 120 070 deaths were recorded during the census. Male deaths constituted 53,6% of the total deaths recorded during the census. Throughout all age groups, males had higher mortality rates compared to females,” the report read.

Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai Rusike said health-seeking behaviour among men is poor compared to women.

Rusike said clients at health centres are often women and children less than five years.

“There is a particular focus in primary healthcare on women and children due to their vulnerability and the fact that their ill-health affects the wider community. Apart from the general inputs that all people need for health, women also need services to support safe reproductive health, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of infections such as HIV, child delivery and care, including nutrition during pregnancy,” Rusike said.

“The spread of health information, improvement of nutrition, safe living and community environments are key to disease prevention amongst men. Prevention and management of common diseases also depends on early detection and treatment. We are also aware that unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking cigarettes and alcohol abuse are a lot more prevalent in men compared to women.”

Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights secretary Norman Matara said quantitative research is needed to establish why more men were dying than women.

Matara said women practice self-care while men are reckless.

“This is why most men died during the census period compared to women.”

Zimstats data also showed that 78 384 deaths constituting 64,7% were registered while unregistered deaths constituted 30,3% and 5,0% had an unknown status.

 

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Concerns over amendments to the Health Services Act.

Credit : Newsday

THERE are fears that the recently signed Health Service Amendment Act could trample on the rights of health workers.

Speaking to NewsDay, Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai Rusike  said the Act is neither democratic nor consultative.

He said workers in the public health sector  are now disadvantaged in several ways, since now they cannot strike and bargain collectively.

“It is unfortunate that health workers are caught in the middle of a system that is slow to respond to their needs and ethical pressures not to take collective job action,” Rusike said.

“The unpopular Health Services Act will most likely exacerbate the exodus of health workers from the country thereby putting extra pressure on those who will remain on their jobs.”

He urged government to address the conditions of service for health workers to plug the brain drain.

While there are no exact statistics on the number of health professionals who left the country in 2021, the Zimbabwe Nurses Association put the figure at just over 2000.

Last year, government announced plans to ban doctors and nurses from embarking on job action lasting more than three days under new proposed amendments to the Health Services Act.

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Brief Post Budget Analysis 2023 CWGH

 

The 2023 Health Budget allocation of only 11% has remained largely uninspiring given that it has not addressed the critical issues that we raised in our Pre-Budget position paper. It falls far short of the Abuja Declaration Target of 15%.

Unfortunately the health budget remains grossly inadequate to address the critical needs in the health sector such as the current exodus of health workers, drug shortages, inadequate ambulances, and obsolete equipment.

The inadequate public financing of the health sector has resulted in an overreliance on out-of-pocket and external financing which is highly unsustainable.

We hope that the funds allocated will be timeously and fully disbursed to the health sector and that the Ministry of Health will also utilize the funds effectively and in a transparent manner.

I hope this will assist

Itai Rusike, Executive Director, Community Working Group on Health (CWGH)

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‘93% Zimbos have no health insurance’

Credit Newsday :  By Miriam Mangwaya and Harriet Chikandiwa

ABOUT 93% of Zimbabweans have no access to health insurance due to high poverty levels in the country, while only 7% can afford private health services.

This came out during a stakeholder engagement meeting on revitalising primary health care in the country to promote universal health coverage which was hosted by the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH).

The country largely depends on external funding for its health financing.

“Currently, only about 7% of Zimbabweans have access to medical insurance and this number is insufficient to ensure decent public healthcare. No country can prosper without a healthy citizenry.  In line with regional and global best practices, national health insurance can be publicly funded through a combination of sin taxes as well as sugar taxes to ensure primary healthcare to every Zimbabwean,” CWGH said

The 2022 national budget revealed that 25% of the country’s major hospitals were providing selected major surgeries while provincial hospitals failed to offer selected specialist services.

“The country also faces a critical shortage of healthcare staff with the number, quality and capability of healthcare workers as a ratio of the population being critically low. Zimbabwe also suffers from inadequate public health infrastructure and ill-equipped hospitals, CWGH said.

Meanwhile, government has revealed that the country only has five radiotherapy machines which are working, which has resulted in cancer patients having to wait for months to access services. Global Cancer Observatory data states that in 2020, Zimbabwe reported 16 083 new cases of cancer and 10 676 deaths due to the disease.  The most frequently reported cancers in the country included cervical, breast and prostate.

Responding to questions from legislators in the National Assembly, Vice-President and Health minister Constantino Chiwenga said: “We have five cancer machines which are working, and they are not enough. We have done our shopping list as we discussed and agreed with the Ministry of Finance in order to address equipment shortages at all our hospitals.”

“We have to standardize all our equipment so that even if we transfer a professional from Plumtree to Mutare, he will not have a problem, they will have the same type of equipment and this way, we can guarantee our citizens that wherever they will go, they will be attended to.”

He said the issue needed to be urgently addressed as young children were also being affected by cancer and had to be sent out of the country for treatment.

“Right now, the equipment which we are procuring includes that for surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, humeral therapy and external beam radiotherapy machines.”

Meanwhile, Chiwenga has ordered all Premier Service Medical Investments (PSMI) institutions to reopen following reports that they were closed due to financial challenges at PSMAS.

“I have directed that all PSMI institutions which had closed down must open.  We are putting medicines into those institutions so that our people get attended to while investigations are on-going,” Chiwenga said.