Namibia News

The Ministry of Health and Social Services trained f 60 health workers and partners from different sectors to strengthen the country’s capacity to prevent and control neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).  The training was conducted on 24-28 October 2022 in Swakopmund.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services with support from WHO held a National Consultation meeting on 15-17 November 2022, on the National Policy on the Rights, Protection and Care of Older Persons in Namibia to review and make recommendation on the draft policy. By 2050, the number and proportion of people aged 60 years and older in the population are estimated to increase from 1 billion (2019) to 2.1 billion globally.  In Africa, this increase is estimated to be 220 million compared to 65 million in 2018.

Health experts from Namibia and Angola gathered in Ondangwa on  7 November for a four (4)-day meeting to strengthen cross-border collaboration for disease prevention and control. The meeting was convened by the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services in partnership with WHO with support from the Government of Japan.  

GOBABIS- As she reflects on the havoc the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 had wrecked in the Omaheke region over a year ago, 46-year-old Elna Christiana Rooi’s tears flow freely down her face. 

Rooi lost her life-time partner, who was also the father of her children- and sole breadwinner to COVID-19  in May of 2021. She believes the outcome could have been different if they had sought medical attention sooner. 

“To be honest we were very scared of going to the hospital because most of the people who went there did not come out alive,” says Rooi. 

INDHOEK - As the focus shifted towards managing the global Covid-19 pandemic, essential health services such as routine immunization suffered a blow with many children subsequently missing out on their routine immunization. 

“The issue of Covid-19 affecting our immunization was felt at a national level,” says Tomas Ukola, the Khomas Health Regional Director. The routine immunization programme and maternal and child health days were disrupted primarily because of lockdowns and the decongestion happening in many health facilities. 

RUNDU - About ten kilometres on the eastern outskirts of Rundu is the Mayana village, an area characterized by flood plains. In fact, Mayana means flood plains in the local dialect and is named after the low-lying ground surrounded by water. 

“We have a lot of water bodies down here and mosquitoes breed everywhere,” explains Johannes Lipayi, the AFRO 2 Malaria project coordinator for Mayana and Sikondo villages, situated in the Kavango East and West regions. 

WALVIS BAY- It is a Wednesday morning at the Kuisebmund Health Centre and Shirleyn Awases is among the 20 women seeking antenatal care services at the facility.  

The 31-year recently had a miscarriage and not long before that she delivered a stillborn baby. This time around, the mother of a 10 -year is expecting yet another baby. 

GOBABIS- Thirty four year-old Erwin Meroro believed he would never get sick with COVID until he was hospitalized with the disease for over two months in the Gobabis State hospital. Meroro, the patient with the longest hospital admission for COVID-19 at Gobabis State hospital narrowly escaped death. That experience changed his perspective on COVID-19 and life. 

When Dr Ifeolu Oyedele first learned that he would be going for training on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s ‘Clinical handbook for the health care of survivors subjected  to intimate partner violence and/or sexual violence’ he did not think he would learn anything new from the session.

Namibia declared the end of the Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) outbreak on 02 March 2022 after battling with the outbreak for almost 4 years since December 2017.