Of late, the Lake Zone regions are reported to have increased cases of cancer, with cervical cancer being one of the top killer diseases particularly among women patients diagnosed to be HIV positive.
With 12 cryotherapy machines already distributed, the five machines were handed over here yesterday to Ilemela, Sengerema and Kwimba districts in Mwanza regions, whose HIV prevalence has increased from 4.2 percent in 2011/2012 to 7.2 percent according to Tanzania HIV Impact Survey conducted in 2016/2017.
Receiving the support, the Mwanza Regional Commissioner Mr John Mongela said the increasing HIV prevalence in the region was a matter of concern, calling for stakeholders to immediately chart out strategies to alleviate the situation.
“The reports on HIV status in our region should now awaken us to take serious interventions in trying to remedy the situation, which includes strictly checking the movements of the young generations increasingly targeted by the killer disease,” he said.
Mr Mongela addressed the stakeholders from the Local Government and Non Governmental Organizations dealing with HIV programmes that in the last four years, the campaigns against the pandemic have alarmingly gone down.
He called on stakeholders, including religious institutions, to wake up and keep on volunteering public education on the problem while cautioning parents and guardians against misuse of information and communication gadgets among their teenage children.
The RC said there was an outcry among many parents on the increasing misuse of smartphones and other communication facilities, leading in one way or another into children engaging in unsafe sex practices, paving way for HIV infections.