Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabweans eke out a living selling ARVs to Nyaope users in S.A
08 Mar 2017 at 13:30hrs | Views
A recent investigation brought out a shocking revelations of a sudden increase on an illegal exportation of ARVs to neighbouring South Africa for resale to Nyaope peddlers.
The highly addictive drug is a unique South African street drug, which came into widespread use in 2010 mostly in impoverished townships. It is cocktail of Marijuana (dagga), cheap heroin, Anti-Retro-Viral drugs (ARVs), rat poison and acid that is smoked.
Former Highlanders and Masvingo United defender,Peter Makuvise, now based in South Africa's densely populated township of Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, who admitted that he sometimes take Nyaope to releave stressful moments, said ARVs business is brisk in South Africa and most Zimbabweans are making a living out of it.
"Yes, it's stressful down here and I sometimes take the drug although I must admit that it's very dangerous substance. I take it on very rare occasions, but some Zimbabweans are already addicts. Unotovawana vakastika uchavaona. (You will see them hooked on that substance). "Some they don't smoke but they just sell ARVs they bring from Zimbabwe and are enjoying life here. Togona kuenda pahasha pacho kana uchida (We can go where everything is happening). That is the place where most Zimbabweas meet during weekends. A bottle with 30 tablets can fetch up to R500. They sell them to Nyaope peddlers who use them as part of the Nyaope cocktail," he said.
A visit to a joint in Cosmo City township in Section six near Multi-Purpose complex, called Champas owned by a Mozambican national, but frequented by Zimbabweans revealed that tens of boxes of ARVs are finding their way into South Africa from Zimbabwe.
While the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) and its partners are working to ensure that ARVs are available, accessible and affordable, there is a need for monitoring if the. ARVs are getting to the right people. According to one source in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, because of economic downturn most People Living With HIV (PLWH), have either migrated to other countries in search of jobs, and never came back or died, but remained in hospital books as HIV patients, hence a need for audit to establish the actual number of patients.
"There is a great need for a serious audit of the actual number of HIV patients, because of unrcorded cases of death and migration. "Such loopholes are creating an enabling environment for medical practitioners to sell the drugs illegally. It is however, going to be a very difficult task because some are sending relatives to collect drugs for them, and send them wherever they are, " he said.
Meanwhile, more than 940 000 people are on anti-retroviral treatment in Zimbabwe, and according to 2015 UNIAIDS HIV and AIDS estimates the number of people living with HIV is between 1 300 000 and 1 500 000.
However, the strategic information coordinator in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Mutsa Mhangara, last year, said HIV prevalence now stands at 13,8 percent from about 15 percent the previous year, while presenting the preliminary findings during a validation meeting held in Harare, and went on to say new infections had also gone down from 0,98 to 0,78 in 2015.
Contrary to the statement, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), in a World Aids Day report, last year, warned of a global rise of HIV infections among adolescents from 250 000 in 2015 to nearly 400 000 a year by 2030. According to the report, last year alone nearly 14 000 girls and young women, between the ages of 15 to 24, in Zimbabwe were infected with HIV. The minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa could not be reached for comment as his mobile was not reachable
The highly addictive drug is a unique South African street drug, which came into widespread use in 2010 mostly in impoverished townships. It is cocktail of Marijuana (dagga), cheap heroin, Anti-Retro-Viral drugs (ARVs), rat poison and acid that is smoked.
Former Highlanders and Masvingo United defender,Peter Makuvise, now based in South Africa's densely populated township of Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, who admitted that he sometimes take Nyaope to releave stressful moments, said ARVs business is brisk in South Africa and most Zimbabweans are making a living out of it.
"Yes, it's stressful down here and I sometimes take the drug although I must admit that it's very dangerous substance. I take it on very rare occasions, but some Zimbabweans are already addicts. Unotovawana vakastika uchavaona. (You will see them hooked on that substance). "Some they don't smoke but they just sell ARVs they bring from Zimbabwe and are enjoying life here. Togona kuenda pahasha pacho kana uchida (We can go where everything is happening). That is the place where most Zimbabweas meet during weekends. A bottle with 30 tablets can fetch up to R500. They sell them to Nyaope peddlers who use them as part of the Nyaope cocktail," he said.
A visit to a joint in Cosmo City township in Section six near Multi-Purpose complex, called Champas owned by a Mozambican national, but frequented by Zimbabweans revealed that tens of boxes of ARVs are finding their way into South Africa from Zimbabwe.
"There is a great need for a serious audit of the actual number of HIV patients, because of unrcorded cases of death and migration. "Such loopholes are creating an enabling environment for medical practitioners to sell the drugs illegally. It is however, going to be a very difficult task because some are sending relatives to collect drugs for them, and send them wherever they are, " he said.
Meanwhile, more than 940 000 people are on anti-retroviral treatment in Zimbabwe, and according to 2015 UNIAIDS HIV and AIDS estimates the number of people living with HIV is between 1 300 000 and 1 500 000.
However, the strategic information coordinator in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Mutsa Mhangara, last year, said HIV prevalence now stands at 13,8 percent from about 15 percent the previous year, while presenting the preliminary findings during a validation meeting held in Harare, and went on to say new infections had also gone down from 0,98 to 0,78 in 2015.
Contrary to the statement, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), in a World Aids Day report, last year, warned of a global rise of HIV infections among adolescents from 250 000 in 2015 to nearly 400 000 a year by 2030. According to the report, last year alone nearly 14 000 girls and young women, between the ages of 15 to 24, in Zimbabwe were infected with HIV. The minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa could not be reached for comment as his mobile was not reachable
Source - Garikai Mafirakureva
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