Minister of Health and Social Services, Esperance Luvindao, acknowledged that malaria cases in Namibia are reaching worrying levels.
This followed concerns raised in the National Assembly by IPC MP Elvis Lizazi, who said:
“And as we speak now, the hospital of Katima, Mulilo is full. Some of the patients are on the floor. What interventions is the Ministry putting in place to keep this situation?”
Minister Luvindao responded:
“I convened a high level stakeholder meeting where myself, together with country leadership, as well as experts such as former Minister of Health, Dr. Richard Kamwi, as well as Africa CDC, WHO and local experts who are present, we have now crafted a new strategy and a new direction.”
Addressing questions about polio outbreaks linked to unvaccinated children from Angola, Luvindao said:
“Cross border transmission has been a very big issue even when it comes to malaria and I suppose then it is a balance that we continue to sort of find with the political relationships the international relations that we have but also making sure that we guard against having too much of an increase in our numbers of various cases and various outbreaks.”
Over 27,000 Children Vaccinated in Zambezi Region’s Polio Campaign
The Zambezi Region has vaccinated over 27,000 children under the age of ten during the third round of polio vaccination, started earlier here to reach children affected by floods and relocations.
Nurse Nosiku Mundia at Katima Mulilo Hospital said:
“We capitalized on school going children as we know the targeted age is ten years and below as we know most of these kids are found in school, so the schools the strategies of reaching the schools was the one that was working so much but despite that our teams are out, they are going door to door in each and every compound of Zambezi region we have dispatched all the teams that are going out there.”
Ministry Public Relations Officer Walters Kamaya stated:
“Some of the challenges we are facing, the biggest in Zambezi region is accessibility of some other places and the other issue also you know schools have closed and then we are looking for kids into the community, however this morning is the last day for the learners, they're collecting their reports and then this morning one of our strategies to see to it that for the next two hours we want to catch up to them.”
Nurse Boleka Sikanda added that challenges include finding children without guardians and resistance to vaccination. The campaign will conclude on 30 April.