admin
Herald Reporters
At least 8 000 nurses are set to undergo training and mentorship in HIV prevention, treatment and care under a US$65 million dollar project that will run for the next five years. Officially launching the project in Harare yesterday, Health and Child Care Minister David Parirenyatwa said the programme was expected to bring confidence to health workers in initiating both adults and children on anti-retroviral drugs as well as performing surgical male circumcision.
In a speech read on his behalf by head of Aids and Tuberculosis Unit in the ministry Dr Owen Mugurungi, Minister Parirenyatwa acknowledged that nurses were the backbone of the health care delivery system in the country and so needed to broaden their scope of practice to include male circumcision and commencement of ARVs, among others. “The integrated model of service delivery that is used in this support is quite critical in the strengthening of the service delivery system while at the same time fostering full ownership and sustainability of the programme through all the service delivery levels,” Dr Parirenyatwa said.
He said Government recently approved that nurses be trained to perform surgical male circumcision, a move meant to increase circumcision in the country.
“This is in recognition of the immense benefit that the country will achieve by increasing the availability and accessibility of male circumcision as this intervention will directly avert 42 percent of all the new HIV infections in the next 10 years,” he said.
Funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) the five-year project would be implemented by the Zimbabwe Association of Church Related Hospitals (ZACH) and the International Training and Education Centre for Health (I-TECH).
Online Reporter