Zimpapers Logo

Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Reporter
AT least 16,000 people living with HIV in Tsholotsho District have been put on antiretroviral (ART) treatment in the past decade, an official has said.Medicine Sans Frontièrs (MSF) Spain head of mission in Zimbabwe, Victor Leonor, told journalists during a media tour of Pumula Mission Hospital in Tsholotsho on Friday that his organisation was running a successful ART programme targeting local villagers.

“Numbers are impressive. Over the past nine years MSF has supported the enrolment of more than 16,000 patients on anti-retroviral therapy in Tsholotsho District,” he said.

Leonor, however, announced that MSF was suspending its services in the district after working with the community in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care for a decade.

“After the Tsholotsho closure, MSF Spain will leave Zimbabwe at the end of the year. Two other sections of MSF (Belgium and Holland) will continue supporting HIV programmes in Zimbabwe during the next years,” he said.

Leonor said the organisation would be handing all of their projects to the Ministry of Health and Child Care and narrated how MSF had helped improve the health delivery system in the district since 2004.

He said the district was facing difficulties in dealing with people living with HIV as the health facilities were failing to cater for them.

“At that time, health facilities in the district and mainly in Tsholotsho District Hospital were overloaded by the high number of HIV patients who were seeking health care assistance,” Leonor said.

“The antiretroviral therapy had not yet been introduced in the district and therefore many lives were lost because of the virus. Stigma and discrimination were also highly present among a population who had poor information about the disease, how to prevent and how to treat it.”

Leonor said through the MSF intervention, communities in rural Tsholotsho including those in remote villages were now accessing treatment.

He said the organisation had enabled infected villagers to be diagnosed locally and receive the needed treatment without incurring the expense of travelling to remote health centres.

Leonor, however, said more work needed to be done to consolidate the achievements made so far.

“Having made big advances in offering HIV and TB services and putting people on treatment, the health system is still struggling to cope with the high medical needs in some areas. There are still a number of areas where access to HIV and TB treatment remains low,” he said.

MSF resident doctor, Dr David Wachi, said the organisation had long planned to suspend its operations.

“We have been planning this since 2012 and we are doing it transitionally. We have our monthly meeting with officials from the Ministry of Health and Child Care on how they will take over some of our projects,” he said.

Some of the people living with HIV in the district said MSF’s departure would have a negative impact on their lives as they were taught how to live with the virus.

“As long as the drugs are available we won’t have any problems. We have our mentor mothers and our support groups,” said Judith Ncube who has been living with the virus for the past eight years.