Zimbabwe’s Cancer Patients Turn To Herbalists Over Ailing Health System
Zimbabwean cancer patients are increasingly turning to self-styled herbal clinics for treatment, as the country’s largest public hospital, Parirenyatwa, is the only facility with a functioning radiotherapy cancer treatment machine available to the general public.
With nearly 17 million people relying on this single resource, access to care remains a significant challenge.
Compounding this issue, Parirenyatwa has not had a functioning mammogram machine for 15 years. A mammogram is an X-ray imaging technique used to screen for breast cancer and other abnormalities in breast tissue, making its absence a critical gap in cancer care.
In an interview with AFP, Agnes Kativhu, 67, shared her experience of being unable to receive treatment for breast cancer after spending a month at Parirenyatwa Hospital.
Frustrated by the lack of options, she ultimately sought care at a herbal clinic. She said:
I was a moving grave but am now well. I never want to go back to the hospital because it broke my heart that they failed to give me a single tablet.
Although many herbalists are unaccredited, unregulated, and lack proven results, they are increasingly sought after by Zimbabweans who feel let down by a failing public health system.
Nothando Mutizira, head of oncology at Parirenyatwa, told AFP that the single radiotherapy cancer treatment machine available is inadequate to meet the growing demand for cancer care. She said:
However, we are managing to provide radiotherapy services with this single unit.
Simbarashe James Tafirenyika, president of the Zimbabwe Municipalities Nurses and Allied Workers Union, said that hospitals are struggling with a severe shortage of medicines and essential supplies, such as gloves and syringes.
He pointed out that even when hospitals do have equipment, regular power outages often render these machines inoperable.
Tafirenyika also noted that public hospitals are losing staff to the expanding private sector and countries like Britain, as well as neighbouring nations such as South Africa, Zambia, and Mozambique.
Lovemore Makurirofa from the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe told AFP that there is a troubling reliance on the perceived benefits of herbal remedies, alongside a growing mistrust of hospital treatments. He said:
Many people fear both the disease and its treatments, avoiding chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.
When you ask patients why it has taken them that long to come and seek medical attention, usually they will tell you that they’ve been using herbal medicines for quite a long time.
When patients eventually come, they come either with stage three or stage four cancer which is more difficult to treat, more expensive to treat and also the outcomes are much poorer.
Never Chirimo, 66, is the herbalist who runs the Harare centre where Kativhu sought help for her breast cancer. Confident in his abilities, Chirimo claims he can treat any type of cancer.
Another of his patients, 58-year-old Wilfred Manatsa, shared his experience of spending $25,000 on treatment for prostate cancer and Kaposi sarcoma at a private hospital.
Faced with an additional $7,000 cost for surgery that he could not afford, Manatsa decided to put his faith in herbal remedies.
He has since set aside his prescribed medications and now relies solely on herbs for his treatment.
More: Pindula News
