Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has screened 100 000 Zimbabweans who returned home from South Africa for various communicable diseases, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora has said.
Dr Mombeshora said this on Wednesday during the National Assembly’s question time.
Government has put in place measures for the safe return of Zimbabweans living in South Africa following threats to their safety by some South African activists to citizens of various African countries living in the country’s neighbour.
“We have put in place our health workers at the ports of entry to make sure that every returnee is being screened, from adults to children,” he said.
“So far, we have screened over 99 000 Zimbabweans, but we are also screening returnees to Malawi and Zambia to make sure that no communicable disease passes through.”
He added that they were also dealing with those on treatment for chronic ailments.
“We are dealing with those living with HIV and on ART treatment, we are also interrogating every returnee about whether they are on any chronic illnesses, specifically HIV, diabetes and hypertension,” he said.
“Some of the returnees will tell you that they have been on treatment, but when they left, they also left some of their treatments so we have put in place a mechanism.
“We have a clinic that has been set up there, where we can provide treatment for at least five days, because we want all those returnees to go to the respective areas where they are staying so that they can be registered in the districts where they will be staying and they will start receiving their treatment on a long-term basis.”
He added that they were not able to institute long-term treatment on their arrival because they needed to first take baseline tests, like viral load and other tests, which cannot be done at the port of entry at the moment.
“We have put in place those mechanisms to ensure that no one who has been on any treatment will have their treatment interrupted, but that continuous treatment can be instituted wherever they will be staying.”
