Southern Province Health Director Jelita Chiyonga has bemoaned the misuse of mosquito nets by various communities across the province.
Ms Chiyonga says several communities have continued to use mosquito nets for catching fish and fencing gardens thereby frustrating government efforts to eliminate malaria.
Speaking when Southern Province Permanent Secretary Mwaangala Liomba visited Choma general Hospital to farmiliarize himself with the operations of the health institution yesterday, Ms Chiyonga informed the PS of the Ministry’s efforts to combat Preventable diseases such as Malaria and HIV.
“As a Ministry we have embarked on the distribution of mosquito nets to canter for household in the province, unfortunately some beneficiaries in rural areas use these nets for other purposes”, she said.
She said this challenge is common in Namwala, Gwembe, Sinanzongwe and Siavonga where fishing activities are high leading to increased malaria cases in those districts.
Ms Chiyonga also said Maternal mortality is slightly high with the province having recorded about 72 maternal deaths in the year 2017.
She said maternal death is high because most expectant mothers report late for antenatal.
Ms Chiyonga said the ministry is carrying various sensitization activities to encourage pregnant women report for antenatal within 16 weeks of pregnancy.
She further highlighted that failure to report early for antenatal also contributes to mother to child transmission of HIV.
And Southern Province Permanent Secretary Mwaangala Liomba used this interaction to urge the medical practitioners in the province to maintain high levels of confidentiality with patient’s information.
Mr Liomba said with the mandatory HIV testing for every patient vising any health facility, there is need for medical staff to keep the test results confidential.
He said confidentiality is key in health ethics to which the medical practitioners swore to keep as they deal with patients.
Only tongas are capable of doing that. I hear they infkate condoms and give them to theur kids to play with like ordinary baloons. And some people want us to have a tonga president with alk this backwardness honestly where are we going to end as country.
I am your father.
They are using them to shield their cows instead.
Y’all acting like it’s a surprise but this has been happening for years in Zed, just like those who like Nshima prefers a hard one so that the can feel satisfied for a long a longer period. In the end, constipation and others issues including crying during the process of answering the call of nature.
Sorry to say this they even misused the vote on the Bill of Rights.
For the bill of rights to pass it need 50% yes votes of people with NRCs, are you saying south has more than 50% people with NRCs in the country? I thought you always say you are the majority, what happened?
Remember always to ask your mother, least you forget. I am your father.
@Tonga Montana, just address the issue my friend. Yes the truth hurts. Have a good day.
In this day and age people still use nets …I wonder if these nets are imported!!