ZVISHAVANE The District Hospital here is operating without a CD4 count machine following the breakdown of the machine two months ago, an official said.
A Government medical officer at the hospital, Dr Simbarashe Manyara, revealed this at the commemoration of the belated District World Tuberculosis Day that was held in Zvishavane last Friday.
Dr Manyara said it was now costly to test the samples as they were taken to Gweru Provincial Hospital every week for testing.
We are now experiencing transport challenges and financial constraints. This has forced us to reduce the number of samples to be tested. We now send only 20 samples to Gweru instead of 40 that we used to test at our hospital. This is therefore adversely affecting our operations, he said.
Dr Manyara said the breakdown of the machine was not affecting Zvishavane District Hospital only, but even hospitals from Mberengwa. Health centres in Mberengwa were taking their samples to Zvishavane District Hospital for testing.
Dr Manyara said although the major hospital in Mberengwa District, Mnene Mission Hospital, had a CD4 testing machine and sampling kits, it had no laboratory technicians.
This forces them to transport samples to Zvishavane District Hospital for testing, he said.
Post published in: News