This was revealed by the AIDS and TB Director in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Owen Mugurungi, at a roundtable discussion in the capital today.
Mugurungi said increasing the number of health staff would help drive success in the current Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission initiatives.
He attributed the shortage of nurses at government health institutions to poor remuneration that has offset a brain drain to better paying countries.
The health sector in Zimbabwe was hard hit by the flight of brain drain at the height of the country’s economic decline in the last decade which saw trained personnel going seeking greener pastures in neighboring countries as well as abroad.
“We don’t have adequate human resources at all clinics and we should have more nurses if we are to address these challenges. Unless we increase the number of nurses working out there or their level of remuneration, our people will just get experience here and go to such countries as South Africa, Namibia and Botswana,” said Mugurungi.
He said regretted that Zimbabwe had made limited progress in terms of PMTCT campaigns due to the inability to capitalise on its wide human resource base.
“If you look at countries such as Namibia, South Africa and Botswana, you will find that they have done much better but if you look at their human resources, most of the people are from Zimbabwe,” said Mugurungi.
Speaking on male circumcision, Mugurungi said efforts were underway to increase the target to 80 percent.
“If we are able to do that, it will make a big impact as far as reducing the cases of HIV/AIDS is concerned. In 2010, less than 15,
000 people were circumcised but this year we have already circumcised more than that figure,” said Mugurungi.
He added that women have a central role in making circumcision acceptable in their communities.
Post published in: News