Cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, among youths aged between 10 and 19 in Rumphi District have increased in the past two years.
Rumphi District Hospital figures show that STI cases among girls and boys aged between 10 and 19 years have increased from 211 in 2024 to 228 in 2025, so far.
The number of teenage pregnancies has also ballooned from 444 in 2024 to 644 in 2025, while 131 teens are on antiretroviral therapy, up from 80 in 2024.
Rumphi District Hospital Youth Friendly Health Services coordinator, Tereza Singoyi, disclosed the figures at Rumphi Youth Resource Centre on Friday when Nzatonse Project brought together various stakeholders to deliberate on sexual and reproductive health challenges the youth face in the district.
Singoyi has attributed the rising numbers to various gaps, including limited number of facilities with trained youth friendly services providers, and hilly terrain which makes it difficult for the youth seeking the services to access them among others.
“We also have few trained community distribution agents for family planning services such as condoms. We are currently providing outreach services to these areas in order to bridge this gap.
“With our partners support we also have youth mobilizers who are community based who give information about sexual and reproductive health services to their peers,” said Singoyi.
She further said the engagement meeting with youth representatives from various traditional authorities in the district has also brought to their attention the gaps in the provision of SRHS to the youth, and that her office would work on addressing the gaps through partnerships with various stakeholders.
The Coordinator further said Nzatonse Project has also been training peer educators and community mobilizers.
The youth in the district have asked various duty bearers ranging from health, education, social welfare to act on SRHS challenges youths face in accessing the services.
Peer educator from Phoka under Nzatonse Project, Matilda Msiska, said it is scary for the youth to learn about increasing numbers of youths getting infected with STIs, including HIV.
She urged the authorities and various stakeholder to act quickly on the issue and other issues including mental health that leads to suicide cases among the youths from the district and beyond.
District Coordinator for Nzatonse Project in Rumphi, Tumpale Kangere, said through the project they are striving to create a conducive environment for the youth to access sexual and reproductive health services, including mental health services, in order to curb the challenge of unplanned pregnancies, which lead to fistula cases and school dropout among girls.
The Nzatonse project is being implemented by the Livingstonia Synod Health Department, in collaboration with the ACT Alliance, led by Norwegian Church Aid and Dane Church Aid joint country programme, with funding from the German government through KfW.
