STIs soar in Masvingo

Masvingo Bureau
The scourge of sexually transmitted infections continues to grow in Masvingo with 11 342 cases reported across the province from June to September this year. This is an increase of more than 1 000 cases compared to the 10 113 cases reported in the province from April to June.

Masvingo provincial National Aids Council co-ordinator Mr Evos Makoni said the number of STI cases reported in the province continues to surge adding that Masvingo Rural, Chiredzi and Gutu districts had the highest number of cases.

Mr Makoni said the majority of the victims of STIs were women who accounted for 7 337 cases in the third quarter with males accounting for 4 005 cases. “The scourge of STIs continues to wreak havoc in Masvingo where we continue to see an upward trend in the number of reported cases since the beginning of the year. We had an increase of over 1 000 cases of reported STIs in the third quarter (June-September) compared to the second quarter (April to June). Most of the cases were reported in women where out of the 11 342 reported cases in the third quarter 7 337 were women while 4 005 cases were men and maybe this is because it is mostly women who go and seek medical attention at our health centres when they get an infection,” said Mr Makoni.

He revealed that Masvingo Rural, Chiredzi and Gutu districts had the highest number of cases with Nemamwa growth point in Masvingo district, Mpandawana Growth Point in Gutu and Negovanhu Business Centre in Bikita recording high numbers of STIs in the third quarter.
He said they were studying why remote areas such as Negovanhu Business Centre in Bikita had high number of STI cases in the province.