Namibia News

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.