Publication: Children's Health Worsening in Zimbabwe, New DHS Reveals Demographic Health Surveys (DHS)

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In the face of economic hardship, Zimbabweans are struggling to preserve their families' health. According to the new 2005-06 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS), children's health is worsening as vaccination rates drop and malnutrition and anemia increase. Children's overall health is suffering, the survey shows. Most noticeably, basic immunization coverage for children ages 12-23 months has declined sharply to 53 percent, down from 75 percent in 1999. The percentage of children who have not received any immunizations is 21 percent, up significantly from 12 percent in 1999 and 4 percent in 1994. To be fully vaccinated, the World Health Organizations recommends a child receive one dose of BCG vaccine, three doses each of DPT and polio vaccines, and one dose of measles vaccine.

Zimbabwe's children are more malnourished now than in the previous decade.

In particular, the prevalence of stunting has increased to 29 percent, up from 21 percent in 1994. Stunting measures a child's height for age and reflects the cumulative effect of chronic malnutrition. Anaemia is also more common now among children ages 6 to 59 months than it was in 1999. More than half of children (58 percent) have some level of mild to moderate anaemia.

For the first time, the 2005-06 ZDHS gathered data on domestic violence. In Zimbabwe, domestic violence occurs across all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. More than a third (36 percent) of women age 15 to 49 have experienced some type of physical violence. Of these women, 57 percent said their current husband or partner committed the violence and 21 percent said it was their former husband or partner.

In other significant new findings, one in six adults in Zimbabwe (18 percent) has HIV. The ZDHS findings show that the HIV epidemic is generalized across all provinces in Zimbabwe, ranging from 15 percent in Masvingo to 21 percent in Matabeleland South. As in other African countries, HIV affects more women than men in Zimbabwe. Twenty-one percent of women age15 to 49 are infected with HIV. For men of the same age, HIV prevalence is 15 percent. For women, HIV prevalence peaks between the ages of 30 and 34 at 36 percent. For men, it peaks almost a decade later, between the ages of 40 and 44 at 33 percent. The ZDHS interviewed more than 13,000 men and women between August 2005 and March 2006.

The ZDHS is the first national survey to use population-based testing to determine HIV prevalence. Previous HIV estimates using sentinel surveillance found a prevalence rate of 24 percent. Because the two methodologies are different, the numbers cannot be directly compared. Thus, the new ZDHS rate of 18 percent does not necessarily signal a decline in HIV prevalence.