The shortage of drugs saw STI cases rising by almost 50%
between December and March.
The drugs were handed over to Masvingo Town Clerk, Engineer
Edward Mukaratirwa by SolidarMed Support Unit manager, Witness Chigaba
Masvingo chief health officer Suzanne Madamombe told a
small function held at the Civic Centre to receive the medicines that the local
authority ran out of Ceftriaxone for injection immunox, the drug used to cure
STIs because the supplier Natpharm did not have it in stock for most of the
fourth quarter of 2021.
She told guests that the absence of STI medicines started
to see cases reported at the council’s four clinics rising steeply from January
to April and this prompted council to look for donors and that is how
SolidarMed chipped in.
When we ran out of drugs we started asking patients to buy
from private pharmacies but these are way too expensive and many would not buy
but continue to be sexually active thereby spreading the diseases to others.
“Many of the patients are sex workers and this is one
reason we think is the cause of the steep rise in the STIs,” said Madamombe
There were 159 STI cases reported in November and they fell
to 132 in December. However, in January the cases started increasing steeply
from 136 to 183 in February, 194 in March and 190 in April. The increase
between the minimum figure December and the maximum in March is 46,9%.
Madamombe also bemoaned the lack of STI screening equipment
at council clinics which is supposed to diagnose they type of STI. Because
clinics cannot diagnose, patients have to be treated with three different
drugs, namely Ceftriaxone, cefixime and ciproflaxin. She also decried the
uptake of condoms and the proper use as too low.
She said that the common types of STIs treated in Masvingo
are Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Human papillomavirus and Syphilis. She said that STIs
can result in male and female sterility, still birth and low birth weight.
Mukaratirwa thanked SolidarMed for its intervention and
said that the Masvingo City Council has had a longstanding relationship with
the NGO. Apart from the fact that SoldarMed is housed at the Civic Center, the
two have some programmes that they run together.
SolidarMed Support Unit manager, Witness Chigaba said his
organisation is Swiss-headquartered and also locally registered in Zimbabwe
with the Ministry of Labour. The organisation however, works through the
Ministry of Health and Child Care and has four programmes including Smart B
under which the donation took place.
Smart B is a programme on HIV and TB which also covers
STIs.
Chigaba was accompanied by Cordelia Kunzekwenyika the
project manager for HIV and TB. Masvingo Mirror
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