adminVictor Maphosa Mashonaland East Correspondent
MureHwa District has the highest rate of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Mashonaland East Province, the National Aids Council (NAC) has said.
A research carried by NAC from 2013 to date showed that most districts in Mashonaland East province recorded a significant decline in new infections except for Murehwa District.
In an interview with The Herald after belated World Aids Day commemorations held in Marondera last week, NAC provincial manager Mr Wilfred Dube said the situation in Murehwa was as a result of management of treatment.
“Statistics has shown that in the whole province, the rate of new infections was dropping serve for only one district and that is Murehwa, we conducted a research targeting the most affected areas and we established that the biggest contributing factor was to do with management of treatment,” he said.
“Most people in what we called hot spots who were infected by STIs were advised to buy treatment from pharmacies and in most cases these treatments would come in two or three dosages and due to allegedly economic hardships, most patients would only afford to buy one treatment and apply it instead of a full dosage and by so doing the infection will not completely go, but it will recur.”
Mr Dube said most clinics in the district were operating without drugs to treat STIs and patients were being advised to buy them from pharmacies.
He said they had shared this information with the Provincial Medical Department and the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Mr Dube said they had also embarked on various programs to combat new STI infections in Murewa, Mutoko, Mudzi and Nyamapanda border post by introducing moonlight testing.
“To combat new infections and to take control of the situation, NAC has since introduced moonlight testing, where we conduct free HIV testing during the night in Murehwa and we have since established a moonlight clinic at Nyamapanda border post,” he said.
“We are also making sure that whenever we visit areas without drugs around the district and in the whole province, we consult the health department to give us drugs so that whenever we conduct our tests those infected would receive their full treatment.”
Mr Dube said moonlight testing proved to be effective because it was conducted in areas where most sex commercial workers would be operating and by mobilising them to be tested, infections would come down.
He said though the problem in Murehwa was to do with management of treatment, new infections showed that people were acting irresponsibly.
Mr Dube urged people who were sexually active, in particular the youths, to refrain from sex before marriage and to always and consistently engage in protected sex.
Online Reporter