Open for Care: Zambia Cuts the Ribbon on Fourth and Fifth PEN-Plus Clinics
The Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, or CIDRZ, recently announced the July opening of a PEN-Plus clinic at Chifubu Level 1 Hospital in Ndola, shown above. The Scottish Government has supported both that clinic and Zambia’s fifth clinic, which launched at Chipata District Hospital in Eastern Province in August. (Photo courtesy of CIDRZ)
Zambia health officials recently opened the country’s fourth and fifth PEN-Plus clinics, marking both occasions within weeks of launching the country’s national operating plan for the care of people living with severe noncommunicable diseases.
The Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, or CIDRZ, a PEN-Plus implementing partner working in collaboration with the NCDI Poverty Network, chronicled both clinic openings.
First CIDRZ announced July’s opening of a PEN-Plus clinic at Chifubu Level 1 Hospital in Ndola, supported by the Scottish Government. The clinic added to existing clinics in Matero, Mwachisompola, and Kapiri Mposhi.
Professor Fastone Goma, principal investigator for the PEN-Plus program in Zambia, said nearly 2,100 people living with NCDs are enrolled at the Matero and Mwachisompola clinics alone, reflecting Zambia’s growth in NCD care.
Among the first patients enrolled at Chifubu was Veronica Maela, an 18-year-old with sickle cell disease.
“I am so happy that the PEN-Plus clinic has started here at Chifubu Level 1 Hospital,” Maela said. “I will now be coming here for my regular checkups and to get my medication. It makes things easier for me.”
Not long after, on August 7, CIDRZ announced that Zambia’s Ministry of Health and partners had opened the country’s fifth PEN-Plus clinic, also supported by the Scottish Government, at Chipata District Hospital in Eastern Province.
In a prepared statement, Paul Thole, permanent secretary of Eastern Province, noted that the opening of the PEN-Plus clinic at Chipata District Hospital will help address a significant epidemiologic shift in Zambia’s disease burden, from infectious diseases to NCDs.
The statement, which Dr. Lewis Mwape, deputy permanent secretary for the province, read during the clinic-opening event, asserted that, “From January to June 2025, Chipata District alone had 3,864 hypertension cases and 429 diabetes cases.” Those cases included 23 deaths caused by hypertension and nine caused by diabetes.
CIDRZ reported that the new PEN-Plus clinic at Chipata District Hospital will bring care closer to more families, relieve heavy patient numbers at Chipata Central Hospital, and serve as a training hub for healthcare providers in the province.
“For a health system such as ours, which was overburdened by HIV, TB and malaria, we are now seeing NCDs overtaking those diseases,” said Dr. Fastone Goma, principal investigator of the PEN-Plus Project at CIDRZ. “So, we are in this phase of handling a double burden.”