PEOPLE living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) say the closure of several hospitals due to nurses and doctors’ strike is retrogressive and has moved Zimbabwe backwards in its fight against HIV/Aids.
According to available health records, It is the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) that has suffered the most severe blow from the widespread closure of medical centres.
This was said recently at a discussion forum on the use of traditional midwives to help deliver babies during the current phase of economic hardships the country is enduring.
In one of Zimbabwe’s oldest suburbs, Mbare, there has emerged Esther Zinyoro a traditional midwife who has reportedly helped more than 100 underprivileged pregnant women deliver their babies.
A discussant on an HIV/AIDS discussion forum Catherine Murombedzi, said although traditional midwifery was important, very little was being done to help protect the newly born babies delivered under their practice from contracting HIV.
“Mbuya Nyamukuta is doing a great service in this hour of need.
“However, her work exposes how the health delivery system has retrogressed.
“Babies are now not being tested for HIV. BCG – a vaccine for tuberculosis – is in short supply in some centres,” Murombedzi lamented .
She also said traditional midwives without proper toolkits were a huge disservice to the health sector as they had rolled backwards most of government’s efforts towards achievement of universal health care (UHC).
Participants on the platform said all efforts made so far to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV had come to naught as a result of the ill-equipped traditional practice exercise.
“So, talking of UHC does not apply when we are 70 years backwards in terms of maternal health as is currently the case in Harare,” Murombedzi added.
Another participant who declined to give her name said the Mbare midwife was doing a commendable job although the safety of resultant babies from her efforts could not be guaranteed.
“She is doing a very good job. But now, what about our babies who need NVP? There are no measures to reduce PMTCT,” she said.
She also said the Mbare midwife story was likely to cause the proliferation of traditional midwives across the country, like happened in 2008 when most medical institutions shutdown for close to six months, dealing a thorough blow to Zimbabwe’s efforts towards PMTCT.
Participants at the forum also blamed government for not doing enough to ensure UHC as all as this required a strong healthcare delivery system and an unwavering political will by policy makers.
Meanwhile, current efforts at PMTCT recorded prior to the health problems bedevilling the country have yielded positive results, managing to reasonably rollback the number of children born with the deadly virus by more than 78 percent.
Government has also been urged to help traditional midwives access HIV/Aids tool kits so that unborn babies are protected from the deadly HIV infections.