A student in Mongu Zambia is experiencing terrible pain after sleeping with a married man over the weekend.

The student named Mercy told BBN (Barotseland Broadcasting Network) in an interview that she felt as if fire was burning her private parts and she was failing to sit properly without opening her legs for fresh air. She also spoke about failing to urinate even though she felt a lot of pressure.

“It all started yesterday in the morning after I left the lodge in town. What really happened is that, I went with my friends to attend the Mongu music festival on Saturday night at Mongu stadium where musicians such as Chef 187, Bobby east and many Mbunga artists were performing.

Within the arena three guys approached us and we shared each one of them with my friends. We also went to continue partying at Shanaya club in town. After 02:00hrs my friends with their partners left the club and went to their respectively guys home.

We also left the club and went to check on a room but unfortunately all four lodges we found they were already full. We only managed to find a room at Hippo’s and we slept there. But after having sex, he told me that he was a married man although his wife was a jealousy type and also very violent. So he said we should play it very low by going to chill to far places away from Mongu town. I told him that I was also a student and needed some support of formal of upkeeps.

Around 05:00hrs he woke up and demanded for a morning glory and afterwards he said he was going home so that his wife shouldn’t notice that he slept out but from the club. He left me a K50 and said he was going to send me something before 10:00hrs.

After leaving the lodge around 09:00hrs, I started feeling so much pain inside my vagina but again considering the fact that his penis was too small, I doubted. The pain kept on growing reaching to the point of me failing to sleep well last night. It was too hot last night and I could feel fire burning inside my vagina and was forced sat on a dish of water. I went to the hospital in the morning but they saying maybe it’s just internal pains and only told me to get this type of medication. Still more , it’s even getting worse.

Around 11hrs, we went to see Dr Mushitu in Mabumbu area of Mongu and after telling him what transpired he said my issue it’s too complicated because the wife had put medicines to protect his husband penis that whoever sleeps with him shall never have peace with her vagina. He said I should go to Kalabo or Lukulu for proper treatment but again it’s too expensive because it’s to clean and remove the Ghost”

Efforts are being made to get Mercy further treatment with witch doctors. Is this a case of witchcraft or some infection/STI? We will never know.

It’s alarming how it’s becoming normal for many young students -even in Zimbabwe- to sleep around with hopes of gaining something financially. The married man gave Mercy 50 Kwacha which is roughly USD$2.70. It does not buy a morning after (she didn’t mention a condom) and medication. She did not mention the man sending her any more money and she mentions that she cannot afford any more treatments.

This incident could give clues on how the HIV virus continues to spread at the rate that it does. People simply do not fear for their health but rather prioritise their pleasure. The Mongu student is not even worried that she could be HIV positive or pregnant but she’s concerned about the pains so that her life goes back to normal. A UN report revealed that Zimbabwe has the third-highest number of HIV positive women in Southern Africa. With new inventions like the HIV prevention ring for women and the false confidence that could come from having it, such behaviour displayed by the Mongu student will get even worse. Will finding a cure for HIV benefit the moral integrity of our African society?

The post Zambian Student In Burning Pain After One Night Stand With A Married Man appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

“Scientists have been trying for decades to develop an effective male oral contraceptive, but there are still no approved pills on the market,” Md Abdullah al Noman, researcher and graduate student at the University of Minnesota said in a press release.

“We wanted to develop a nonhormonal male contraceptive to avoid… side effects.”

When we talk about birth control, especially oral contraception,  the norm is for one to think about women. Women have for the longest time been the gender that has more birth control options available for use. These include the implant, IUD, shot, patch, ring, pill, and abstinence.

By contrast, men only have three birth control options. These include male condoms, vasectomy, and abstinence. Condoms are single-use and aren’t always effective. Vasectomy is a semi-permanent surgical procedure and can be expensive to reverse. And abstinence…well…that’s a story for another day.

It has been difficult for scientists to develop an effective male oral contraceptive due to the side effects and motivation from men to take it. It’s difficult to imagine that a man would willingly take the birth control pill. As it stands, women outnumber men even in sterilization procedures even though a female tubal ligation is far more invasive than a vasectomy.

Many of the male contraceptive options currently in clinical trials target the male sex hormone called testosterone. This can cause a variety of side effects including depression, weight gain, and an increase in cholesterol levels.

The research presented at the American Chemical Society found that the nonhormonal male contraceptive called YCT529 was able to make mice sterile without side effects. The same mice were then able to impregnate other mice four to six weeks after they had stopped receiving YCT529.

Human trials of the drug are expected to take place later in 2022, but the experts who spoke with Healthline caution the same results might not necessarily be seen in humans.

Dr Michael Eisenberg, a professor of urology and male infertility at Stanford, says part of the challenge in creating an oral contraceptive for men is targeting the right part of the reproductive tract.

“You have to find a target and you want to make it specific to the reproductive tract in some way, shape, or form, and really not have any off-target effects,” he told Healthline.

“The testicle itself is supposed to be an immuno-privileged site. So what that means is sometimes it can be hard to target a medication there specifically… the way the testicle is situated… the way that our body has developed a way to create sperm really limits what can get into that area.”

“Of mice and men and the great divide between them. It’s hard to ask a mouse about moodiness or fatigue or other side effects that may manifest in human studies. I am eager to see what the human trials show,” Mills said.

So as it stands, the general flow of things suggests that one day a man will also walk into a pharmacy to purchase a pack of male oral contraception. One day a woman will ask a man before being intimate “Are you taking a pill or on contraception?” One day a man will also be going about his daily business and think “Oh my! I forgot to take my pill yesterday.” That will be both interesting and hilarious!

The post Human Trials On Male Oral Contraception To Start This Year appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

Olinda Chapel-Nkomo shared a picture of a Covid positive test a few days ago on her Facebook page with the caption “Ma one”.

Today on Facebook, Olinda posted of Facebook;

“Amana covid ma one. Ndaizviita ndururani the last 3 years ndichiti ndiri strong. Chinhu chino chino rwadza. Plus kuita kunge wakutopenga. Apo I have 3 vaccines. Haaaaaa ndabhooo. I want to go back to work”

Olinda talks about how the illness is causing her pain and making her feel like she is hallucinating or going mad. And all this despite getting three shots of the Covid 19 vaccine.

Recently many countries like South Africa, Kenya, Denmark and many others have announced that they have removed most (if not all) Covid restrictions as they feel that people are coping well due to good vaccine uptake. With a few people like Olinda Chapel-Nkomo getting ill, could removing measures spark another wave?

The post Olinda Chapel Battling Covid Despite Getting Three Vaccinations appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

Back in the day going to the dentist was intimidating. Some people even live their whole lives without ever knowing what the inside of a dentist’s surgery looked like. Children fear dentist visits because of the funny looking tools that look painful and the huge reclining chair.

Over the years dental surgeries have changed and so have the doctors. Dr Musvosvi is a modern doctor that uses social media to engage with people and educate them on oral health and also market himself.

Dr Musvosvi also shares some personal information on his page like any other person seeking to connect with their followers. He once shared how he initially studies Media Studies and hated it before he chose to pursue Dentistry.

From funny videos of himself getting Covid tests to videos singing with colleagues, and the most interesting, videos of his clients watching television whilst he does their teeth. The TV is mounted just above the recliner chair and patients get to watch their favourite shows whilst they get their teeth whitened or some other procedure. One can see how this idea would be popular with children as well.

The post Meet The Modern Harare Dentist That Lets You Watch TV Whilst He Does Your Teeth appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

The dapivirine ring is an intravaginal silicone ring, developed by the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) for HIV prevention

The ring releases the antiretroviral drug dapivirine for a month and reduces HIV infection by 35%. %. Its safety has been impressive in all clinical trials to date. It received approval from the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organisation (WHO) also added it to its list of prequalified medicines.

South Africa is the first country to approve the ring as it was successfully tested in six African countries (South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)

Dr Zeda Rosenberg, IPM’s founder and CEO, said:

“This approval is a positive step towards offering women more prevention options they can use to control their health on their own terms.

We look forward to collaborating with the South African government and partners to incorporate the monthly ring into the health system, and into women’s lives in South Africa.”

HIV experts argue that expanding women’s HIV prevention choices is critical to controlling the epidemic and ensuring their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Women are currently most affected by the HIV virus with nearly two-thirds of new adult infections in South Africa and across the continent occurring among women.

This is yet another huge stride in the continuous fight against HIV. Recently researchers successfully cured an HIV patient with stem cell therapy. Although stem cell therapy is not accessible to most people, this ring will be accessible to all women and they can insert it themselves.

With the legalization of sex work in many countries as a recognized profession, we are also bound to see women in these lines of work operating more confidently. One has to wonder if the fear of contracting HIV has been contributing to the rate at which the virus has been spreading. Will the spread of HIV be curbed if people start being more sexually active on the assumption that the ring will protect them? The ring is after all 35% effective.

The post New HIV Prevention Ring For Women Approved In South Africa appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

Bennett received the first of its kind procedure in January after he had been hospitalized for six weeks with a life-threatening arrhythmia and had been connected to a heart-lung bypass machine.

The doctors of Maryland Medical Center did not disclose if the death has been caused by complications due to the transplant. They said in a statement that Bennett had “began deteriorating several days ago”

“After it became clear that he would not recover, he was given compassionate palliative care,” the hospital said. “He was able to communicate with his family during his final hours.”

Bennett’s son David Bennett thanked his father’s doctors in a statement released through the hospital.

“Their exhaustive efforts and energy, paired with my dad’s insatiable will to live, created a hopeful environment during an uphill climb,” he said.

Up until the end, my father wanted to continue fighting to preserve his life and spend more time with his beloved family, including his two sisters, his two children, and his five grandchildren, and his cherished dog Lucky. We were able to spend some precious weeks together while he recovered from the transplant surgery, weeks we would not have had without this miraculous effort.”

One may wonder why the heart of a pig? The heart transplant was a milestone in the field of xenotransplantation, the sourcing of animal organs to address the human organ supply crisis. In order for someone to get an organ, another person has to die and although people die every day, not all of them are organ donors. This is the reason why there is a long waiting list when it comes to organ transplants.

The scarcity of human organs for transplants has also given rise to criminal activities like the unlawful harvesting of human organs to sell on the black market. If doctors have more successful cases like Bennett’s then such criminal activities will lessen. The fact that he manage to live for two months after the transplant shows that there could be hope for those who have a need for organ transplant surgery but have no donor.

The post Man Dies Two Months After Getting Heart Transplant From Genetically Modified Pig appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

The patient was being treated for acute myeloid leukaemia (cancer of the blood and bone marrow) when she received a stem cell transplant. The donor also happened to have a natural resistance to the HIV virus.

A small proportion of humans show partial or apparently complete inborn resistance to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It is estimated that the proportion of people with some form of resistance to HIV is under 10%.

The woman is the third person to be cured of HIV but the first using umbilical cord stem cells. The other known cases were males, one white and one Latino. They had received adult stem cells which are more frequently used in bone marrow transplants.

Since receiving the cord blood the woman has been free of HIV for 14 months without the need for antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.

Unfortunately, experts say the transplant method used is too risky to be suitable for most people with HIV. All three patients that have been cured needed stem cell transplants to save their lives. Curing their HIV was a positive but unplanned outcome.

Although the treatment cannot be used on everyone, these findings confirm that it is possible to find a cure for HIV. So far, the main hopes of a cure remain focused on vaccines or drugs that can flush the virus out of the body.

According to National HIV Survey (ZIMPHIA 2020), 1.23 million adults in Zimbabwe were living with the HIV virus. This is an indicator that HIV affects a lot of people in Zimbabwe. A few years ago being diagnosed with HIV meant certain death in 1 or 2 years. Now ARVs and lifestyle changes give people a close to normal life expectancy. This new discovery gives people living with the virus hope for themselves and for those with loved ones living with the HIV virus.

The post Have Scientists Finally Found A Cure For HIV? appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

ZNFPC was targeting to distribute 30 000 male condoms and 5 000 female condoms over the week. It was noted that female condom uptake remains low in Bulawayo thus the lower target for the product.

Marketing and Communications Officer for Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council for Bulawayo and Matabeleland North Provinces, Mr Mission Gwafa said reasons for the low female condom uptake are based on socio and cultural beliefs and taboos that make it a man’s job to source condoms and negotiate for sex.

“People choose the male condoms because of the social and cultural beliefs that make it a man’s duty to source condoms. And there is always a stigma around women who buy and carry around condoms. Women depend on their male counterparts for condoms and even if they collect or buy them, they choose male condoms,” he said.

Condoms are the most encouraged form of contraception methods as they are a barrier method that provides dual protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV as well as unintended pregnancies.

The most common condom in pharmacies and supermarkets is the male condom. This is baffling though considering the number of self-proclaimed feminists in Zimbabwe. One would think that they would jump on the idea of having their own method of contraception that allows them to own their sexuality.

It is an unspoken expectation in society that the man must have the condoms. And another common unspoken expectation is that in the event a couple has unprotected sex, the male is responsible for giving the female money for the morning after pill. This is baffling though since, in the event of pregnancy and HIV infection, it is the woman that must go through nine months of pregnancy and possibly risk giving birth to an HIV positive baby.

Is the modern woman fighting the wrong battles? It seems women fight for things every day. They fight for equal paying jobs and equal human rights. They fight for equal statuses in relationships. Yet this fight disappears when it comes to wearing protection? Yet many women are sexually active. Maybe it’s time women direct their efforts towards issues that affect their daily lives like simply buying condoms to protect their health.

The post Zimbabwean Women Are Shunning Female Condoms: Statistics appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

The term face blind is baffling. Does it mean one is blind to faces? Yes! Face blindness also known as Prosopagnosia is a disorder where one can not recognize people’s faces. It often affects people from birth and could affect a person throughout their life.

People with face blindness can see just fine. The only issue is they just can’t recognize faces. They see color well and can differentiate patterns. They have no problems memory, understanding what they see and they have normal intelligence. Yet this condition can affect a person’s daily life.

The term “blind” is associated with this disorder but they are technically aren’t actually blind. They know when they see a face. They can see the eyes, mouth, lips and other features well like anyone else. But they do not know who the face belongs to.

A study suggested that one in 50 people may have a degree of face blindness but may people do not even know it exists. These people often grow up thinking there just “bad with faces/names”. One can only imagine that having such a disorder could derail your social life. People with face blindness often do not like to socialize as it may make them feel like they are always amongst strangers.

It seems like every day a new disorder/disease comes up and there are names for everything from fears/phobias to habits. How does one draw a line between genuinely having a bad memory and being face blind? We don’t know. But it makes for some interesting food for thought.

The post You’re Not Actually Bad At Names. You Could Be Face Blind appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

In recent years, celebrities have been posting pictures of themselves with IV drips on their arms. The use of vitamin drips has been encouraged for their health benefits and the most commonly mentioned types are Jet Fuel, Myers Cocktail and Glutathione drips often used by Zimbabwean women to bleach their skin.

Jet Fuel, aptly named after its vibrant, luminous yellow color, has been used for many years as an intravenous Vitamin Drip with various and extensive health benefits.

The Borrowdale Trauma Center (in Harare Zimbabwe) also opened a Jet Fuel Drip Bar dedicated to administering these Vitamin drips. According to their website these are “natural IV therapies for various ailments and recovery”. The cost of having the drip is 150USD per session. People go to the bar to cure their hangovers, immune boosting, skin glow and other ailments.

These IV treatments are popular amongst women who bleach their skin as the trauma centre has mentioned “Bollywood Skin Glow” and “Hollywood rush” as part of their benefits. The recommended frequency is once every fortnight meaning one would need 300USD per month to see the benefits of these treatments.

Myers Cocktail (named after the late John Myers, M.D) is an infusion of multiple vitamins and minerals. This nutrient cocktail is injected into the body via IV. Kendall Jenner was hospitalized after suffering from an alleged negative reaction to the Myers Cocktail drip ahead of her appearance at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in 2018.

Are these IV treatments safe?

Dr. Sam Torbati, co-chair of Emergency Medicine at Cedars-Sinai said “For the most part, people report feeling better after these treatments because it’s a rapid way to receive hydration. If you’ve been sick or out drinking, you’re dehydrated—so hydrating will make you feel better.”

Proponents (people that advocate for the therapy say the IV drips work because they bypass the stomach and go straight into the blood stream, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing, says Dr. Torbati.”When you put something straight into the bloodstream, you bypass all of your body’s built-in safeguards and filters. You want to make sure you know exactly what’s in it.”

IV treatment has been gaining traction over the few years and it doesn’t look like the trend will die down anytime soon. People just want the fastest way to get something. The fastest way to get lighter skin. The fasted way to get over a hangover. The fastest way to get vitamins. First it was “eat more fruit”, then it was “take your vitamins” and now its “get your jet fuel”. I wonder what’s next.

The post IV Therapy The Latest Rich Zimbabwean Beauty Trend appeared first on Provoker Magazine.