ZIMBABWE has a massive shortage of cytopathologists as well as forensic pathologists, former Health and Child Care minister, Dr Obadiah Moyo has said.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
He made these revelations over the weekend during the inaugural Zimbabwe College of Pathology (ZCP) graduation at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences (UZCHS) where he bemoaned how the country had a shortage of specialists in clinical laboratory medicine also known as pathologists.
Cytologists specialize in cancer diagnosis while forensic pathologists deal with crime related post mortems.
He said this on the sidelines of the The former Health Minister officiated the graduation ceremony.
We are very happy to have a college like the Zimbabwe College of Pathology because they are focusing on a needy profession. That profession is required in Zimbabwe. We need people to be working in the labs, all well educated and knowledgeable and who will be able to bring out the correct results. What is very essential is that the results must be correct and that person who is running the test must be well educated.
“He or she is going to be the one giving the correct interpretation of the test. If you have someone who doesn’t know what they are reporting it is very dangerous. Imagine there is someone who says you are HIV Positive when you are not Positive. That is disastrous. This College is trying to produce people with necessary knowledge and skills to perform at the best of their abilities,” said Dr Moyo.
The ZCP president Professor Hilda Matarira stated that the country needed more forensic pathologists.
“There is a very serious shortage in forensic medicine which deals in diagnosis, investigations especially causes of deaths. For forensic medicine we have two experts in the country. We don’t have graduates. We don’t have diplomas.
“Zimbabwe has a lot of cases which are not determined how people died. The relatives will not find closure. Once forensic medicine comes with the data and work out how they died, they have peace and closure. Culprits can be found by DNA molecular technology,” she said.
Prof. Matarira also said Zimbabwe was void of cytopathologists.
“For cytopathology, we dont have any expert in the country. What I hope to do is, I have got a link with Stellenbosch, Nairobi, who have experts who have agreed to train together with the Zimbabwe College of Pathology,” said Prof Matarira. Meanwhile, of the 120 that enrolled, 46 graduated with Diplomas in Clinical Laboratory Medicines. These graduands are the first batch with the remainder expected to graduate in August.”
