Mothers condemn new child health cards

The child health card has been in existence since 1980 and has evolved over the years to keep up with the advances in immunisation, growth nutrition and national policies that improve the quality of infant care.

Last year the Ministry of Health unveiled new cards, issued for each child immediately after birth to be kept safely and carried by the care-giver who then presents it on subsequent visits to healthcare providers.

“The new health cards are not strong and they easily tear in a very short space of time,” said Amai Munashe whose baby is 14 months old.

“My first born, who is five years has an old health card which is still intact compared to the pink one which is already in pieces and I think government should improve on the quality of the cards,” she added.

Amai Nicky of Epworth whose child is 14 months said the new cards were not readily available.

“I gave birth at a local clinic in Epworth and the nurses are selling these new cards for $5 and until now am using an exercise book,” she said.

Amai Blessing of Mbare said her son’s health card lasted only a few weeks. “In 10 days the health card was already torn and I do not see it lasting for five years. It is unfortunate that clinics do not replace lost cards or those that are in tatters,” she said.

The Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control, Portia Manangazira, recently told The Zimbabwean that one of the major objectives of the revised cards was that children’s growth rates at birth were observed to be different depending on the sex of the child.

“This was one of the major drawbacks of the old card as it assumed similar growth patterns. In light of this the recommendation to provide separate cards for the sexes was implemented with the blue cards being for the boy-child while pink is for girl-child,” she said.

Manangazira said the ministry had printed enough health cards and those who lost or with soiled cards can have replacements. On the quality, she admitted that the cards were made of thin paper, but said limited resources had forced this move.

“These concerns are genuine and welcome and the ministry is doing something about it,” she said. “At the moment there are some plastic covers that can be used to cover and protect the cards as a temporary measure and we expect care-givers to keep safe these cards.”