By Nakisanze Segawa, GPJ Uganda KAMPALA, UGANDA — One nurse died from the Sudan Ebola virus in Uganda on Jan. 29. Two more cases were confirmed days later — and hundreds of people were direct contacts. The virus spreads fast, and it’s deadly: The Sudan strain’s fatality rate ranged from 40% to 100% in past outbreaks, and there are no approved vaccines. Now, the United States Agency for International Development, a key partner in treating Ebola and slowing its spread, has stopped all funding for global health and all of…
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Antibiotic Resistance is Here. Millions of People are Dying
Reporters: Aline Suárez del Real, Edna Namara, Evidence Chenjerai, Gabriela Meléndez-Rivera, Lucila Pellettieri, Odonchimeg Batsukh, Sunita Neupane For years, Radha Lama bought antibiotics in bulk at a clinic near her home in Kathmandu, Nepal. She took the pills whenever she had a stomachache or headache, without talking to a doctor or nurse, says her daughter Pratikchya Lama. Now, at 57 years old, Radha Lama is on a ventilator in the intensive care unit of Nepal’s Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. She hasn’t been able to breathe on her own since August…
Read MoreThey Earn More Money, But Some Migrant Health Workers Say It’s Not Worth It
By Gamuchirai Masiyiwa, GPJ Zimbabwe HARARE, ZIMBABWE — When Tanya moved to Ireland for care work in 2022, she was certain of three things: Her family would join her soon. Her husband would find work. And her children would attend a good school. Initially, her move was smooth. Visas and permits were no problem. But once in Ireland, reality proved harsh for Tanya, a Zimbabwean who asked Global Press Journal to use her middle name for fear of jeopardizing her visa status. The country’s visa restrictions for the general employment…
Read MoreAmid Zimbabwe’s Mass Exodus, Meet the Doctors and Nurses Who Stayed Behind
By Gamuchirai Masiyiwa, Global Press Zimbabwe HARARE, ZIMBABWE — At five months pregnant with her second child, Vimbai started bleeding. She suspected a miscarriage and rushed to a public clinic for help. The attending midwife didn’t examine her, says Vimbai, who chose to use her middle name for fear of stigma. “The only thing they did was [give] me cotton wool.” To Vimbai’s shock, the midwife wrote “attempted abortion” on her consultation card and referred her to the nearest public hospital about 20 kilometers away (nearly 12.5 miles). But Vimbai…
Read MoreInside the Makeshift Maternity Wards of Harare
By Linda Mujuru, GPJ Zimbabwe HARARE, ZIMBABWE — In the high-density suburb of Hopley, Tatenda Mangwanya, 16, admires her 2-week-old baby girl to whom she gave birth with the assistance of a self-trained midwife. She stands by her decision to give birth at home, which she says was the safest for her baby, whom she named Nqobile, a Ndebele name meaning “victor.” I was registered at a local clinic in the neighboring suburb of Highfield about 10 kilometers from here, but I was transferred to [the hospital] located farther away…
Read MoreRemembering the Zimbabwean Health Care System’s Heyday
By Gamuchirai Masiyiwa, GPJ Zimbabwe HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Wards bustling with highly motivated health care workers, readily available medication, decent salaries, a thriving teaching hospital network — this defined Zimbabwe’s health care system in the 1980s. Back then, it was considered a model of efficiency and effectiveness in Africa. Today, however, the system is broken. Shortages of medical supplies, a crumbled infrastructure, and a mass exodus of health care workers have left the country unable to meet the needs of its people. Among those left questioning the decline is Stella,…
Read More‘I Was All Alone’: Why Some Zimbabwean Women Kill Their Babies
By Linda Mujuru, Global Press Journal Zimbabwe This story was originally published by Global Press Journal. HARARE, ZIMBABWE — “I just want to forget about it,” Tariro says. The 24-year-old woman remembers the night in January this year when she gave birth to twins, then buried them alive in a shallow grave behind a neighbour’s house. The memory lingers in her mind, though she deeply longs to erase it. “I had stomach cramps the whole night until I gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. I was all…
Read MoreZimbabwe’s Goal to End AIDS Is So Close. Why Are Health Experts Worried?
By Gamuchirai Masiyiwa, Global Press Journal Zimbabwe HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Precious rarely takes her medication in public. If she must, she keeps the pills in an unmarked case and discreetly opens it inside her handbag before taking the medication. Even at home in Mabvuku, a suburb east of Harare, Precious makes sure the pills remain in her secret place — the unmarked case. The 31-year-old has her reasons. In 2004, Precious, who asked to use her middle name for fear of stigma, was diagnosed with HIV. She was put on…
Read MoreTeen Pregnancies Are Soaring. Is Revamping Sex Education the Answer?
BIKITA, ZIMBABWE — When Delight Ziwacha was 16, she didn’t know one could get pregnant after having unprotected sex only once. A friend told her that it had to happen multiple times. So, after experimenting with alcohol during a high school soccer tournament, she had unprotected sex with her 17-year-old boyfriend. A month and a half later, she found out she was pregnant. By Evidence Chenjerai Senior Reporter “It only happened that one time,” she says. Ziwacha, now 19, doesn’t remember ever receiving any sex education in school. The little…
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