THE move by the Health and Child Care ministry to establish another anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and tuberculosis care centre equipped with state-of-the-art machines is a step in the right direction.
Editorial Comment
It is not so much about the amount used to set up the centre, which hovers around $30 000, but the idea behind it — bringing health care to where the need is greater.
Health deputy minister Aldrin Musiiwa, who handed over the facility to Kadoma Municipality last Friday, said the centre will cater for over 12 000 people living with TB and HIV.
In an environment where the cost of living is rising due to the economic malaise Zimbabwe is experiencing, the only plausible and sensible approach is to take health care to those most in need. What adds value to the initiative is that the centre is one of the only two TB and HIV care centres in Mashonaland West province, and clearly it also takes care of patients from other provinces such as Gokwe North in Midlands in the west.
We only hope that, as Musiiwa indicated, the new centre would fulfil government’s decision to bring health services closer to communities and such programmes can be replicated across the country to save people’s lives by the drawn-out by treatment.
We believe that in this day and age of technological advancement, no one should die of Aids when the facilities that provide care are there.
What government should do is to ensure that drugs are available always at a cheaper cost and/or should even be subsidised to ensure the poor have easy access to medication. Health provision should not come at a huge cost, but the fees should be universal to afford everyone access to health care.
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Solving local health challenges calls for locally-adapted interventions and innovations, and the government should play a major role in this regard.
Government should, therefore, continue to provide affordable health care and training communities to accelerate health innovation to increase the quality, access and affordability of health care in poor communities.
While the wealthy are able to afford luxurious health care service, from private hospitals, the majority become the losers, and, hence, the government’s position in the provision of affordable health care is in this case important.
Recent reports have shown that 10 million Zimbabweans live precariously below the poverty line, heightening the need for the government to support inexpensive health care and schemes to benefit them.
We are heartened at least by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease country director, Christopher Zishiri’s call to work with government in the fight against the TB and HIV scourge.
It is hoped that Zimbabwe will not abuse the $5 million annual funding by Zishiri’s body. The Kadoma facility brings to four such institutions with three others in Harare, Bulawayo and Chinhoyi.
No doubt, these centres are not enough to serve the whole country. More needs to be done if the Health ministry is to make inroads in examining TB profiles and reducing viral loads for thousands of people on treatment across the clinic.
