Namibia News

COVID-19 vaccination is key to control COVID-19 pandemic, however Namibia is amongst the countries in Africa with low vaccination rate.  As of 15 June 2022, only 23.8% Namibians were fully vaccinated from the target population of 1,779,271.  

Namibia’s malaria cases have been increasing steadily over the past few years and this necessitated WHO support to government through the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) to intensify malaria control interventions.  WHO and MOHSS have been implementing a larviciding demonstration project for the past three years in five malarious districts selected from 5 regions namely Omusati, Oshikoto, Ohangwena, Kavango East and Kavango West.

WHO donated 10 Dell Latitude 5320 Laptops, valued at two hundred and eleven thousand Namibia Dollars (NAD 211,169.61) to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) to support the completion of the 2nd Cause of Death Report for Namibia.  

The Ministry of Health and Social Services with support from World Health Organization (WHO) and funding from the Government of Japan concluded a one-year project to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services.  The programme was implemented against the backdrop where COVID-19 threatened the country’s ability to meet its target to reduce maternal mortality from 385 (NDHS 2013) to at least 200 per 100,000 live births by 2021/22 and to reduce newborn mortality from 20 to 10 per 1,000 live births by 2021/22.

On 2 March 2022 Namibians applauded their  government for declaring an end to the Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) outbreak.  The 4-year long outbreak affected 13 of the 14 political regions mainly in informal settlements and areas with poor hygiene and sanitation.   

A Namibian visual artist, Hage Mukwendje, handed over a special painting to the World Health Organization on 21 January 2022 at the UN-House, Windhoek, Namibia.   The painting was done as part of the LEAD Innovation Challenge Grand Finale event held end of last year on the 24th of November 2021 and illustrates the importance of respecting our environment for future generations. 

Namibia joins 21 other African Countries with the recent launch of the ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’ campaign. 

This pan-African movement aims to accelerate prevention efforts against malaria and calls on individuals, communities, political leaders, and private sector to make a personal commitment towards malaria prevention.  

Imagine a woman in a remote setting needing to return to the nearest health facility for follow-up treatment receiving a reminder on her mobile phone or a patient needing the next prescription of her hypertension medication receiving this by email without the physical contact at a health facility.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia in collaboration with its development partners led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is conducting a Health Sector performance review that will cover the period 2009 to date.