25 local medical scientists are currently undergoing training on how to operate the new viral load testing machines supplied by a Chinese organisation named Real World Organisation.
Speaking after the training of certified laboratory technicians and scientists on how to use the Samba 11 machine last week, Health and Child Care Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa said the country is still burdened by new HIV infections hence the need to continue adopting effective ways of curbing the virus.
The Samba 11 machine detects HIV infection and measures the level of the virus in the blood stream monitoring the efficacy of medication on users.
“The Samba machine is the one that has been selected and Zimbabwe as you know is the first one to use the point of care machines in the world,
“We are the pioneer in this medical innovation and you (technicians and scientists) will be the trainers of trainers. You will be the experts in using point of care machines,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.
“The only way to find out is to see the viral load, when its going up it means the medication that you are taking is not working.
“This is the beauty of the Samba 11 machine, it is really to follow up on our patients to see the efficacy in treatment, improve our patient care, the quality of treatment and the extent of the resistance that we are facing,” added Parirenyatwa.
Secretary for Health and Child Care, Dr Gerald Gwinji commended the Real World organization for training local medical scientists to operate the new machines.
“We are grateful of this initiative because in the past people used to get their results after 4 to 6 weeks but with this new machine results will be instantly,” he said.
Gwinji added that previously they conducted several tests taking a long time before treatment was initiated which impacted on the health of the infected persons.
This new transformative point-of-care diagnostic which gives instant results for the detection of genetic material from the HIV virus is being rolled out across Africa and Zimbabwe is the first country.
President and Chief Executive Officer for Diagnostics from the Real World, Dr Helen Lee noted that the machine is the latest viral load testing technology which detects HIV infection and measures the level of the virus in the blood stream, monitoring the efficacy of medication on users.
The 25 trained medical scientists were drawn from the country’s 10 provinces.
