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Despite all the difficulties and confusion occurring in Zimbabwe these days and the uncertainty regarding its political future, MSF teams continue to work in their projects throughout the country.
MSF continues to provide free medical care to about 29,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Bulawayo, Tsholotsho (Matabeleland North province), Buhera (Manicaland province), Epworth (Mashonaland East province), and Gweru (Midlands province). Out of these, MSF is supporting more than 16.000 patients on Antiretroviral treatment thus allowing these people to live normally and with dignity. During the last years, MSF has put in place a strategy of decentralisation of patients from the hospitals to the peripheral clinics improving their access to treatment.
MSF has been helping to alleviate the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic since 2002, which at that time had a prevalence rate among adults of 33% (according to UNAIDS figures). This disease is not only a burden on the people and families of Zimbabwe, but also on the economy of the country. The prevalence today is still one of the highest in the world, officially 15.6%, but still a lot higher in some areas of the country.
Besides, floods, cholera and other watery diarrhoeas outbreaks have hit the country in the last months. In recent emergency interventions, MSF has been addressing diarrhoea and cholera cases in various locations in Mashonaland East province with some 250 cholera cases treated so far. In Kariba (Mashonaland West province), MSF has provided medical material and training to local health personnel in order to help respond to a cholera outbreak. MSF is also giving support to the health structures in Mashonaland West and Masvingo provinces and in Bulawayo to respond to diarrhoeas outbreaks. It has also assisted flood victims in the Save river area and in Tsholotsho district.
The difficulties of the permanent and transitory population around the border town of Beitbridge (Matabeleland South) - the entry point to South Africa for thousands of migrants- have collapsed the local health structures. MSF is therefore launching a new project of support to health care for its population, both residents and migrants.
MSF has been working in Zimbabwe since 2000. Currently MSF employs in Zimbabwe about 400 Zimbabwean staff and counts with the presence and the work of approximately 50 international staff.
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