News / Health
Test tube baby programme launched in Zimbabwe
01 Jun 2016 at 06:45hrs | Views
An in vitro fertilisation programme has been reintroduced in Zimbabwe at The Avenues Clinic in Harare. The procedure was pioneered at The Avenues Clinic in the 1980s and '90s by obstetrician Dr Tony Robertson but discontinued early this millennium.
There are 52 people who are adults now who were conceived through Dr Robertson's in vitro fertilisation (IVF) programme, sometimes referred to as the test tube baby procedure. However, when Dr Robertson left the country for a year in 2000 the programme moved venue with minimal success. It was then discontinued.
The Avenues Clinic has revamped the laboratory used for the IVF procedure, which adjoins one of The Avenues operating theatres.
The IVF team is made up of Dr Tinovimba Mhlanga and Dr Robertson, both of whom are specialist obstetricians and gynaecologists, medical laboratory scientists Tinei Makurumure and Mrs Robertson, who are the embryologists, and Sr Florence Marechera, a nursing sister who is the programme's counsellor and coordinator.
Dr Mhlanga and Mr Makurumure have both undergone specialised IVF training at the University of the Orange Free State Medical School in Bloemfontein, South Africa. They have also invested in up-to-date equipment for the IVF procedures.
Dr Robertson and his wife, who are both now retired, are playing a chiefly advisory role in the team and intend to withdraw once they are no longer required
In addition to in vitro fertilisation, members of the team offer other fertility treatments that include intra uterine insemination (IUI), commonly referred to as artificial insemination.
The Avenues Clinic managing director Merissa Kambani said The Avenues Clinic was delighted that couples for whom in vitro fertilisation was the only medical means of fulfilling their yearnings to become parents would now have this means available to them locally.
"There are so many couples desperate for a child but unable to have one that in vitro fertilisation could assist. The success of the programme carried out at The Avenues Clinic in the 1980s and '90s shows that we have the expertise and facilities locally to conduct a successful IVF programme," she said.
Dr Robertson is also delighted that the IVF programme is resuming after such a long time. He said other members of the team share his view that the programme must be motivated by a desire to help childless couples rather than by money.
He said the original reason for starting IVF in Zimbabwe was to prevent patients having to go outside the country for the procedure, which was costly and deprived Zimbabwe of valuable foreign currency.
In vitro fertilisation is known as the test tube baby procedure because a woman's eggs and her husband's sperm are brought together outside the womb in a dish in a laboratory. After embryos have begun forming one or two of the embryos are implanted in the woman's womb, where they continue developing. Excess embryos formed can then be frozen for future implantation.
The laboratory that the team uses at The Avenues Clinic is next to an operating theatre. When the doctor has removed the eggs from the woman, which is done through aspiration under ultrasonic guidance, they are passed in a tube through a hatchway between the theatre and the laboratory to the embryologist.
Dr Robertson praised The Avenues Clinic for enabling the team to carry out IVF procedures.
"The Avenues Clinic must get a lot of praise. It has revamped the laboratory premises at its own cost and been very supportive of the whole programme," he said.
He said the success rate of an IVF programme should be measured not by how many pregnancies ensue from IVF treatment but by how many live babies are taken home as a result of the procedure.
Measured in this way, that is the live baby per embryo transfer, the success rate of his original IVF programme was 19 percent, he said, adding that this compared favourably with the success rate in other countries at that time.
He said there had been advances in the procedure since the days when he carried it out. Dr Mhlanga and Mr Makurumure had been able to learn, witness and participate in the up-to-date procedures when they were attached to the fertilisation unit at the University of the Orange Free State.
"While I am able to offer some guidance from my previous experience, I am also learning from Dr Mhlanga, who is well versed in the latest procedures," he said.
Mr Makurumure, who has nine years' experience as a medical laboratory scientist, so impressed one of the professors at the university, Professor Daniel Franken, that the professor has offered to pay for his travel and other costs for further training.
Dr Mhlanga and Dr Robertson said they did not like the term infertile when referring to people who had been unable to have children. They said they preferred the term sub-fertile, since infertile sounded final when most people could become fertile with the assistance of modern medical procedures.
They said that they hoped that restarting in vitro fertilisation in Zimbabwe would make it possible for many childless couples who could not afford to go to other countries for this treatment to have it locally.
"The procedure is not easy. It is time consuming. Patience is required, since results are not always as good as one would like. Members of the team often work anti-social hours, particularly where the laboratory work is concerned," Dr Robertson said.
Dr Mhlanga said the demand for fertility treatment was massive. The stigma attached to a failure to have children made many women feel desperate. It tended to be presumed it was always the woman who was sub-fertile but in actual fact a third of the time it was the male factor, while in another third it was both male and female or the cause was unknown.
Only a few could afford the cost and inconvenience of treatment in South Africa or India, which were the places patients were often referred to. Now they could receive treatment within Zimbabwe.
"We have the capacity to offer interventions to sub-fertile couples at an affordable price with the convenience of it being done here in Zimbabwe," he said.
He said couples elsewhere in the region were also likely to want to take advantage of the programme. Enquiries had already been received from other countries, where doctors had heard of the intention to restart the IVF programme in Zimbabwe.
There are 52 people who are adults now who were conceived through Dr Robertson's in vitro fertilisation (IVF) programme, sometimes referred to as the test tube baby procedure. However, when Dr Robertson left the country for a year in 2000 the programme moved venue with minimal success. It was then discontinued.
The Avenues Clinic has revamped the laboratory used for the IVF procedure, which adjoins one of The Avenues operating theatres.
The IVF team is made up of Dr Tinovimba Mhlanga and Dr Robertson, both of whom are specialist obstetricians and gynaecologists, medical laboratory scientists Tinei Makurumure and Mrs Robertson, who are the embryologists, and Sr Florence Marechera, a nursing sister who is the programme's counsellor and coordinator.
Dr Mhlanga and Mr Makurumure have both undergone specialised IVF training at the University of the Orange Free State Medical School in Bloemfontein, South Africa. They have also invested in up-to-date equipment for the IVF procedures.
Dr Robertson and his wife, who are both now retired, are playing a chiefly advisory role in the team and intend to withdraw once they are no longer required
In addition to in vitro fertilisation, members of the team offer other fertility treatments that include intra uterine insemination (IUI), commonly referred to as artificial insemination.
The Avenues Clinic managing director Merissa Kambani said The Avenues Clinic was delighted that couples for whom in vitro fertilisation was the only medical means of fulfilling their yearnings to become parents would now have this means available to them locally.
"There are so many couples desperate for a child but unable to have one that in vitro fertilisation could assist. The success of the programme carried out at The Avenues Clinic in the 1980s and '90s shows that we have the expertise and facilities locally to conduct a successful IVF programme," she said.
Dr Robertson is also delighted that the IVF programme is resuming after such a long time. He said other members of the team share his view that the programme must be motivated by a desire to help childless couples rather than by money.
He said the original reason for starting IVF in Zimbabwe was to prevent patients having to go outside the country for the procedure, which was costly and deprived Zimbabwe of valuable foreign currency.
In vitro fertilisation is known as the test tube baby procedure because a woman's eggs and her husband's sperm are brought together outside the womb in a dish in a laboratory. After embryos have begun forming one or two of the embryos are implanted in the woman's womb, where they continue developing. Excess embryos formed can then be frozen for future implantation.
The laboratory that the team uses at The Avenues Clinic is next to an operating theatre. When the doctor has removed the eggs from the woman, which is done through aspiration under ultrasonic guidance, they are passed in a tube through a hatchway between the theatre and the laboratory to the embryologist.
"The Avenues Clinic must get a lot of praise. It has revamped the laboratory premises at its own cost and been very supportive of the whole programme," he said.
He said the success rate of an IVF programme should be measured not by how many pregnancies ensue from IVF treatment but by how many live babies are taken home as a result of the procedure.
Measured in this way, that is the live baby per embryo transfer, the success rate of his original IVF programme was 19 percent, he said, adding that this compared favourably with the success rate in other countries at that time.
He said there had been advances in the procedure since the days when he carried it out. Dr Mhlanga and Mr Makurumure had been able to learn, witness and participate in the up-to-date procedures when they were attached to the fertilisation unit at the University of the Orange Free State.
"While I am able to offer some guidance from my previous experience, I am also learning from Dr Mhlanga, who is well versed in the latest procedures," he said.
Mr Makurumure, who has nine years' experience as a medical laboratory scientist, so impressed one of the professors at the university, Professor Daniel Franken, that the professor has offered to pay for his travel and other costs for further training.
Dr Mhlanga and Dr Robertson said they did not like the term infertile when referring to people who had been unable to have children. They said they preferred the term sub-fertile, since infertile sounded final when most people could become fertile with the assistance of modern medical procedures.
They said that they hoped that restarting in vitro fertilisation in Zimbabwe would make it possible for many childless couples who could not afford to go to other countries for this treatment to have it locally.
"The procedure is not easy. It is time consuming. Patience is required, since results are not always as good as one would like. Members of the team often work anti-social hours, particularly where the laboratory work is concerned," Dr Robertson said.
Dr Mhlanga said the demand for fertility treatment was massive. The stigma attached to a failure to have children made many women feel desperate. It tended to be presumed it was always the woman who was sub-fertile but in actual fact a third of the time it was the male factor, while in another third it was both male and female or the cause was unknown.
Only a few could afford the cost and inconvenience of treatment in South Africa or India, which were the places patients were often referred to. Now they could receive treatment within Zimbabwe.
"We have the capacity to offer interventions to sub-fertile couples at an affordable price with the convenience of it being done here in Zimbabwe," he said.
He said couples elsewhere in the region were also likely to want to take advantage of the programme. Enquiries had already been received from other countries, where doctors had heard of the intention to restart the IVF programme in Zimbabwe.
Source - agency
