Chronicle Editor
Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
TWENTY-FOUR percent of chronically ill patients in urban areas defaulted on their medication with Bulawayo and Gweru having the highest number of households with people with chronic ailments.
This is contained in the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVac) Urban Livelihood Assessment Vulnerability report for 2020 which shows that Gweru had the highest households living with chronic patients at 42 percent followed by Bulawayo with 41 percent.
The report further reveals that women constitute the highest number of chronically ill people in the country at 67 percent.
HIV and Aids is at 28 percent, followed by hypertension at 26 percent, diabetes at 15 percent and asthma at eight percent.
The report said it was important for people living with chronic illnesses to access constant supply of medication to improve their life.
“The quality of life of members living with chronic conditions depends on adherence to taking of life long medication. In urban areas 24 percent of chronically ill patients reported to have missed medication. The main reason cited was that medication was too expensive. The Ministry responsible for health services should consider subsiding chronic illness medication so that its accessible to the majority of patients,” read the ZimVac report.
Commenting on the matter, Bulawayo City Council Health Services Director Dr Edwin Sibanda said it was important for people with chronic illnesses to constantly access medication as this reduces the chances of them developing complications.
“The longer the defaulting period, the more likely the patient will have complications of whatever the disease the patient is suffering from.
If it’s HIV we are looking at things like resistance developing and ultimately the patient going to the second line and increasing the likelihood of opportunistic infections. If diabetes is poorly controlled, it affects the patient’s eyes and the nervous system. The same will happen for those with hypertension and all other chronic illnesses,” said Dr Sibanda.
He said it was important for Government to strengthen safety protection nets.
“We are talking about vulnerable people who should benefit from social welfare safety nets. The best way to address this problem is to ensure public health institutions have medicines for people with chronic illnesses,” he said.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said recently that Government was working on plans to support chronically ill patients after Cabinet took note of the ZimVac report.
“The Ministry of Health and Child Care is working on modalities to support chronic illness medication so that it becomes accessible to the majority of the patients, including through the introduction of a Health Insurance Fund and possibilities of subsiding the same,” Minister Mutsvangwa told journalists recently during a post Cabinet media briefing. — @nqotshili
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