By Miriam Zvomuya
The Medical Research Council Of Zimbabwe (MRCZ) has been urged to embrace modern trends to bring about solutions that promote health.
This emerged at the MRCZ Annual Health Research Ethics Forum held in Harare under the theme “Health Research in Zimbabwe today: opportunities in a changing environment”. The main aim of the forum was to discuss issues relating to ethical conduct in research.
The Minister of Health and Child Care, Hon Dr Obadiah Moyo said, the MRCZ should catch up with the leading world.
“MRCZ should move from paper to electronics so that it becomes easy for researchers to send their projects. I was happy with the budget yesterday. The Health Ministry has received a much bigger budget this year compared to previous years but at the moment there is a lot to do in the Health Sector as we are experiencing drug shortages.
“Affordability and accessibility are the corner stones of any health delivery system. Quality medicine should be available to our local communities at affordable prices as some of the patients suffer from chronic diseases,” Dr. Moyo said.
He added that the issue of pharmacies selling essential drugs in foreign currency should be resolved by deliberate allocation of resources for the procurement of medicines by wholesalers so that they would in turn be able to sell to pharmaceutical retailers in a currency which the majority of people can easily access.
Zimbabwe is a prime destination for research because of its infrastructure and high literacy rate.
“Our researchers should come up with innovative researches which address the current needs and eventually leading to manufacture and supply the most of our drug requirements.”
Hon Moyo said he was saddened to note that in the last two years, MRCZ has not received any grants from government and that mechanisms for regulating research have been severely affected.
The Annual Forum is an opportunity where the health research community comes together to share progress and identify priorities for future focus.