By Ernest Mfunya:
Coordinator for Youth Friendly Health Services (YFHS) at Mangochi District Hospital, Peter Malipa Tuesday said the district was registering high demand for health services by youth which have helped in reduction of Sexual Transmitted Infections (STIs).
He said the number of youths accessing youth friendly services has increased from 65 to 74 percent and the number of Sexual Transmitted Infections has dropped from 0.5 to 0.3 percent with some youths accessing HIV and Aids related services,
“833 people have accessed Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) unlike in 2020/2021 where 338 people accessed PEP and 84, 000 people accessed HIV Testing Counselling services in past fiscal year while 96,944 accessed the service this reporting period,” Malipa added.
He said in 2020/21 reporting period the demand was lower because a lot of youth were reluctant to seek sexual reproductive health services due to COVID-19 restrictive measures that restricted movement and gatherings in addition to myths that were associated with health services then.
“The demand dropped drastically that time because people stopped coming to health facilities and some of the services were also suspended, “Malipa said, adding that things have now improved for the better.
“We have seen some improvements in the year 2021/2022 because number of activities that were suspended due to Covid-19 have now resumed,” the YFHS coordinator said.
According to Malipa, the improvement came because of good coordination among partners that provided other packages with the Youth Friendly Health Services such provision of mobile outreach clinics, weekend clinics, Youth Community Based Distributing Agencies (YCBDAs) plus awareness campaigns to create demand among the youth in hard to reach areas.
He has since asked youths to join youth clubs in their respective areas and make use of YFHS available in health facilities across the district.
Mangochi District Youth Network Chairperson, Zachariah Aliza, said currently there was good coordination between the youths and SRHR service providers at the district level.
He said there was need to scale up the services to remote areas as youths in these areas do not have Sexual Reproductive Heath Right information.
“We need service providers to work together as opposed to work in isolation as they all target youths who need their services,” Aliza said.
