It's SteeTime!

One of the best indicators of a health care system is how many women die whilst pregnant-trying to give birth or a few weeks after. This is called maternal mortality. The reason public health specialists use this indicator is because a successful delivery of a baby and healthy mother requires all aspects of the system to run smoothly. From the decision of the mother to seek care, recognition of complication, access to health facility, transport to appropriate care delivered at the health facility by trained health workers. Pregnancy complications are unpredictable and are fatal therefore a health system which can prevent these mortalities is said to be robust. The WHO Sustainable Development Goals aim at a maternity mortality rate of 70 per 100,000 live births. In Zimbabwe the rate is 651 deaths per 100,000. In simple terms, this means that about 7 women in Zimbabwe die each and everyday for doing what their bodies were most specially created for – bringing life into this world...

Zika has caused international alarm, with the World Health Organisation declaring it a global public health emergency in February 2016. According to the WHO this is what's definitely known about Zika Virus: Zika virus disease is caused by a virus transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. People with Zika virus disease usually have symptoms that can include mild fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. These symptoms normally last for 2-7 days. There is no specific treatment or vaccine currently available. The best form of prevention is protection against mosquito bites. During large outbreaks in French Polynesia and Brazil in 2013 and 2015 respectively, national health authorities reported potential neurological and auto-immune complications of Zika virus disease. The Zika virus, which has been linked to an increase in Brazil of a birth defect called microcephaly, was first identified in a Ugandan forest in 1947. Scientists now suspect...

Where do I start? I have noticed a lot of my Facebook friends have (temporarily?) left the social medium. Perhaps to concentrate on real-time living. Maybe the cheesy holiday snaps and fake glamorous food pictures were getting too much for them. Some just have found little value in social networking and decided to just try doing without it for a while. I am here to assure you that I am not one of those people. I was simply very very busy. With my wedding festival! Yes, I got married at the end of last year. I was this close to starting a wedding blog. I am sure I could write a million things about that experience, but with the million already existing blogs I really don't know what I could add. I'm just grateful that it all came together short of losing our minds during the preparations. I do recommend the following when attempting this supernatural feat of throwing a wedding 1. Choose an extremely good maid of honour, she must be both your bestest friend but also have a...

When I was in Form Four I belonged to a class with lofty aspirations to be entertainers and comedians. We were a bright but rowdy bunch. One day we were reprimanded by our Geography teacher who declared "Adolescence is NOT a religion!" I sigh fondly at the folly of our youth but saddened by the challenges young people of these days have to face. We also used to climb trees There is a place in a leafy suburb of Harare. If you were not referred or invited, you will not find it because there is no signage outside. This is intentional. This clinic, that thrives in its anonymity, serves almost 6000 HIV positive adults and children of Zimbabwe. I am currently doing a training there. The last HIV training I did was in Kenya 3 years ago and I remember clearly leaving there with quite a gloomy outlook on life. Remember this The Real Picture ? I am coming to the end of this training but I am feeling blessed to know this establishment, happy that there is hope in this stormy sea...

I have almost always began these blog posts with an apology. What is new? It has been a long time, I have been awfully busy. [insert any other plausible reason here] The truth is life sometimes does not allow for pleasurable pursuits like updating blogs, which I do love to do. I apologize all the same. I am embarrassed to say I have only written here once this year. You hadn't noticed? Oops! So, I am currently experiencing my third strike by doctors as a doctor ever since I graduated  in 2010. The first two were in Kenya; firstly when I was an intern at a government hospital, the second when I worked at a mission hospital. The present one is happening right now in Zimbabwe. (I work at one of the main referral hospitals in the country) Medical doctors are undergoing industrial action, asking for just about the same things they always ask for - better working conditions, better remuneration and benefits fitting for the irreplaceable professionals of society that we are. Docto...

Today, Baby Ivy Chiromo* is going home. We have been with Baby Ivy since she was born 3 months ago as a preterm with severe respiratory distress. Her mother has been through it all, collapsed baby needing resuscitation, apneic attacks, jaundice, neonatal sepsis..basically everything that could go wrong...yet here she is going home, with a satisfactory 1.8kg baby girl. There are many challenges at my hospital. We don't always have all the basic medicine, sometimes we cannot transfuse a baby because there is not enough blood or we need surgery that cannot be performed in the country. It is frustrating to know what is needed and yet unable to provide it. So, on a day like this where it is good news you realize that it is all worth it. Just because Baby Ivy is going home it does not mean that the journey is over. Looking after a preterm at home can be just as challenging. She will need what we called Kangaroo Care. Yes, just like the kangaroos Down Under. Even Father's ...

The 2-part headline stories published on 17 and 18 September 2013 in the Zimbabwean paper DailyNews, a paper with a reputation for ‘telling it like it is’, were entitled “Hospitals of Death “ and “Health Horror”. The articles were describing the failure of medical service delivery in the two top government hospitals of Zimbabwe; Parirenyatwa Hospital and Harare Central Hospital.  The political editor, Thelma Chikwanha, who wrote the article about Harare Hospital, mentioned overcrowding of mothers who have just delivered babies, bad attitude of staff, lack of warm water or heaters, long-waits in the outpatient department, heavy charges for investigations, doctors sending patients to their private wards, neglect and misuse of funds by hospital administration. Did I miss anything? Although many people felt that these pieces were displaying good journalism - finally exposing the essential elements of human suffering by the generality of Zimbabweans, I felt they wer...