The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Life Reporter
“It’s not a miracle that I’m alive, it is medicine and technology” 36 year- old Ms Miriam Mbewe (not real name) of Mbizo high density suburb in Kwekwe declared.
After testing HIV positive in 2017 Ms Mbewe was immediately put on treatment, as the “Test and Treat” policy prescribes.
Her health, however, continued to deteriorate at a worrying rate. She was not responding to the treatment.
A couple of months later, in September last year doctors at Kwekwe General Hospital, in the Midlands Province ordered Ms Mbewe to undergo a viral load test.
“They took my blood samples and I was told to come back after two weeks for my results,” she said.
The two weeks became more, as the samples that had been sent to Gweru Provincial Hospital for testing took longer than expected to be sent back to Kwekwe.
At that time Kwekwe General Hospital did not have the necessary equipment at their laboratory to conduct viral load tests.
In the meantime, Ms Mbewe’s health had worsened as no clinical intervention could be made without the results.
“I felt I was losing the battle. I started losing hope. I was on medication yet my health was getting worse by the day. The delays in getting the results made me more anxious,” she said.
At last, after two months the results came showing her viral load was above 1000 copies per millilitre of blood.
“I was moved to the second line treatment regime. Within months I regained my health. I was on a recovery path,” said Ms Mbewe.
When Ms Mbewe returned for her subsequent viral load test in February this year, she was surprised with the expediency at which the tests were carried out this time around.
“Within 24 hours my results were out. I was told I had responded well to treatment and my viral load was now below 1000 copies/ml.
“I was pleasantly surprised at how efficient the hospital had been in testing me and releasing my results,” she said.
What had changed?
Kwekwe General Hospital had benefited from the first phase roll-out of point-of-care HIV testing technology funded by Global Fund through the Government at the beginning of this year.
The Hospital is one of the 25 medical centres that received the Samba II point-of-care machines which can be used for Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) of HIV and viral load testing.
For now Kwekwe General Hospital uses the Samba II machines for viral load tests and authorities at the hospital have testified that the technology improved their clinical practice in managing HIV.
Kwekwe General Hospital medical superintendent Dr Patricia Mapanda said, “Of course the technology has made our work much easier and we are grateful. We used to send samples to Gweru and that came with a lot of challenges, chief among them being longer turnaround period for results.
“Sometimes results would get lost and we needed to redo the tests all over again. Now those challenges have been minimised as we are now able to carry out some of the tests here, although we are still sending some samples to Gweru,” she said.
Laboratory Head at Kwekwe General Hospital Miss Lilirose Changamire said since installation of the Samba II machines in February this year; the hospital had so far carried out 1 900 viral load tests.
“In total we process between 400 and 500 samples per week and of that total Samba II processes about 100 to 150 samples. The rest of the samples are sent to Gweru. Since installation of the machine in February we have carried out 1 900 tests using the Samba II technology,” she said.
Miss Changamire added that priority on the Samba II point-of-care machines was being given to blood samples collected from the Antenatal Care department at the hospital where.
She said the machine has helped the hospital accelerate its Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme.
“With pregnant mothers who are living with the virus, clinical intervention has to be prompt. That is why we have prioritised samples collected from ANC on the Samba machine,” she said.
Sister Sekai Miranzi from the Antenatal Care department added, “With the Samba II, we get results in a matter of minutes. This enables us to initiate paediatric treatment promptly and prevent transmission of the virus to the baby.
“If the viral load in a pregnant mother is above 1 000 copies/ml chances are high the baby will be infected. It is very beneficial for pregnant mothers to know their results as soon as possible to reduce chances of transmission of the virus to the child,” she said.
Sister Miranzi said before the Samba II technology, it would take them close to six week before receiving results, delaying intervention and increasing chances of babies being infected.
The Opportunistic Infections (OI) department at the hospital is also grateful for the point-of-care technology which they feel has improved their clinical practice.
Sister Nokuthula Sibanda said, “The turnaround time for results is now very short, at most 72 hours, unlike in the past when results would take two months to come out.
“Now this technology allows us to quickly make clinical interventions. Loss to follow up cases where patients don’t come back for their results have also been reduced,” she said.
Miss Changamire added to Sister Sibanda’s remarks, “This technology has made it easy for us to monitor our patients on Art as well as monitor drug efficacy. We now feel in charge of our results. In the past we couldn’t answer for the results and the delays,” she said.
A laboratory scientist at Kwekwe General Hospital Mr Stanford Mjanga, said the Samba II point-of-care technology had made his work much easier as the machines were easy to use and allowed him to multitask.
He said so far, since the installation of the machine at the hospital he had not encountered any challenges with the technology.
“This is a quite easy machine to use. It allows you to do other duties while it runs samples. You don’t need to spend time monitoring the machine. In 70 minutes you will be having your results, which is quite convenient for me, nurses and the patients,” he said.
Miss Changamire said the point-of-care technology was as efficient as the centralized heavy duty laboratory machines that they used to rely on before.
She said when the Samba machine was installed at Kwekwe General Hospital, they ran blind samples with both technologies (point-of-care and centralized) and the results matched 100 percent.
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