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By NATION  REPORTER

THE UPND should resist all temptations of silencing the critical voices of the opposition and revert the country to the dreaded days of the One-Party State but promote the tenets of democracy for which Zambia has been known for and being admired for, Brian Mundubile has advised.

Mr Mundubile, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament is concerned that the UPND had started manifesting remnants of dictatorship by becoming averse to divergent views and silencing the voices of the opposition.

Mr Mundubile says Zambians had rejected the dictatorship of the One-Party state and shall resist any remnants of absolutism wherever it shall manifest during the UPND reign in government.

Recently, Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) vice chairperson Reuben Lifuka observed that UPND had started showing remnants of a One-Party State and advised the governing party against weaponizing the law enforcement agencies.

But Mr Mundubile said President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND administration should care to know that they were democratically elected and should never entertain the temptation of taking Zambia back to the dark days of the One-Party state.

He explained that so far, there had been clear indications that the UPND was weaponizing the law enforcement agencies, turning the institutions of good governance into tools of political harassment and retribution against their perceived political foes.

Mr. Mundubile who is PF presidential candidate said new dawn administration should not be tempted to consider a One-Party State but should instead focus on addressing the free-fall of the Kwacha, the high prices of fuel at which is now K29, high ZESCO connection fees which have been increased from K750 to K14,000, the shortage of essential medicines, high cost of fertilizer and high cost of mealie meal.

He said the UPND administration was weaponisation the law enforcement agencies to suppress the freedoms and rights of citizens, cautioning that Zambians had been enjoying democracy since 1991 and would not allow to be taken back of the days of absolutism.

Mr. Mundubile said the arrests that have been conducted in the past one year clearly showed that UPND would never tolerate criticism despite Zambia being a constitutional democracy.

“If you interrogate and find out the nature of these offenses for which these arrests on the many Zambians, you will conclude that the UPND government is just weaponising law enforcement agencies to intimidate citizens,” He said.

 But President Hichilema should just concentrate on delivering to Zambians. Let the President deal with Kwacha that is not showing any signs of recovery from its free fall. Zambians would be happy if President Hichilema reduced the high cost of fuel, mealie meal, the shortage of essential medicines in hospitals and reducing the Zesco tariffs and connections fees,” Mr Mundubile said.

Mr. Mundubile said the UPND administration was attempting to instill fear in the minds of citizens so that they do not associate, speak and move freely, which characterized as typical traits of totalitarianism

“For those of us that were there during the UNIP time, this is déjà vu. We have been there and saw times like this,” he said.

Mr. Mundubile said it was a timely warning to those in the UPND administration that they should resist the temptation of taking Zambia 40 years back because the country had moved on.

“Zambians have enjoyed freedom under this democratic dispensation because we are indeed a constitutional democracy and we expect the Government to govern using the rule of law,” Mr Mundubile said.

Mr. Mundubile said the UPND administration should have cared to audit events that had taken place in the country from the time they took over power before accepting to host the Democracy Summit.

The burden of the pandemic has disproportionately affected socially vulnerable populations. One of the first studies to look at the intersection of social vulnerability with COVID-19 vaccine utilization and effectiveness has found that while vaccination rates have varied substantially between socially vulnerable and communities that are not socially vulnerable, there has been no difference in vaccine effectiveness between those who are socially vulnerable and those who are not.

Locally advanced cervical cancer remains an area of high therapeutic need, with recent trials failing to demonstrate evidence of benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy or immune checkpoint blockade administered concurrent with chemoradiation. Results from the NRG-GY017 randomized trial comparing the anti-PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab before and concurrent with chemoradiation (CRT) indicated favorable outcomes for 2-year disease-free survival (DFS) and demonstrated evidence of improved immunogenicity with neoadjuvant atezolizumab in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer.

Results from the NRG Oncology Phase II NRG-GOG-0279 clinical study indicate that women with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva who received gemcitabine concurrently with cisplatin and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) exhibited increased rate of pathologic complete responses (pCR). This is also the first clinical trial to standardize IMRT. These findings were presented during the Plenary Session at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2023 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer.

NRG Oncology GOG-0240 is the phase 3 randomized trial that demonstrated that the incorporation of bevacizumab with chemotherapy resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful survival benefit for women with recurrent and metastatic cervical carcinoma (NCT00803062). GOG-0240 was a proof of concept in anti-angiogenesis therapy and a proof of principle in supportive care and led directly to an indication for bevacizumab in this disease in more than 60 countries.

After a child’s hospital stay, many families covered by private insurance may experience sticker shock—on average spending $1,300 out of pocket—a new study in JAMA Pediatrics suggests.

A large observational study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that most patients do not medically benefit from consultation with a medical specialist before their surgery.

A research team of 37 scientists, led by the Technical University of Munich, has developed a method to interrogate drug-induced post-translational modifications (PTMs) in a time and dose-dependent way.

To develop treatments that may one day entirely rid the body of HIV infection, scientists have long sought to identify all of the places that the virus can hide its genetic code. Now, in a study using blood samples from men and women with HIV on long-term suppressive therapy, a team led by Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists reports new evidence that one such stable reservoir of HIV genomes can be found in circulating white blood cells called monocytes.

 AN 18-YEAR-OLD GRADE 11 pupil of Lufwanyama Boarding School has been apprehended after he allegedly stabbed two other pupils both aged 17 in the chest and on the palm. The juvenile suspect is believed to have sharpened an instrument after one of the victims who is a grade 12 prefect tried to control him over […]