Kampala, November 13, 2021 - The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt.Hon. Anita Among, and a team from the World Health Organization (WHO), led by the WHO Representative, Dr Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, committed to working together to promote mental health in the country. This was at a meeting held at the Ugandan Parliament in Kampala.

Background

As signatory to the International Health Regulations (IHR), Namibia is required to strengthen its core capacities for health security.  Following the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) in 2016, the country invested resources to attend to the recommendations from the JEE report. A National Action Plan for Health Security was also launched in 2020.    As part of this process, National IHR Focal Point Network was updated in early 2021 and 15 IHR focal persons were identified from various ministries and agencies using the one health approach. 

 Maiduguri, 12 November, 2021 - In Maiduguri, Borno state, the World Health Organization Country Representative, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, commissioned solar panels at the polio laboratory to support the state government in sustaining the intervention of essential health services. 

Violence against women and girls is a violation of their human rights and is largely hidden, stigmatized, and unrecognized by health and other service providers. Despite the robust policy and legal framework in Namibia, women and girls are still exposed to violence throughout their lifecycle whether at home, schools or the communities they live in.  Globally and in Namibia one in three women experience physical and/ or sexual violence; majority perpetrated by intimate partners.

WHO with support from the Government of Japan donated 16 Portable Ultrasound Machines worth N$ 801,843.00 to the Ministry of Health and Social Services 25 October 2021.

The Minister of Health and Social Services, Hon. Dr. Shangula said that the equipment presented, will play an important role in the clinical management of conditions presented in pregnant women. . It will further promote quality assurance and address geographical and cultural barriers that may have caused delays in women seeking care.

Wearing a surgical mask securely fitted over his nose and mouth, Frans Nambinga, a nurse at Namibia’s Windhoek Central Hospital, carefully marked down tips on triage and signs a patient may require intubation, as he was taking notes during a two-week long training given by the UK- Emergency Medical Team (UK-EMT) visiting the country.

The UK-EMT, which comprised nurses and doctors from across the globe, visited Namibia in August and September, and trained 130 health workers from 10 of Namibia’s 14 regions.

Namibia was certified polio free since October 2008 and had continued routine and national immunization campaigns to maintain its polio free status. However, the country remains at high risk for vaccine derived polio viruses due to low detection of Acute Flaccid Paralysis cases in the bordering regions which is used as an indicator to measure how sensitive the surveillance system is. In addition, there is high number of un and under vaccinated children along the Namibian- Angolan and Namibia-Zambia border with 5 densely populated regions bordering these two countries.

Approximately 1,629,289 (64%) Namibians are at risk of contracting malaria. Malaria transmission is unstable, seasonal, characterized by outbreaks and concentrated in  7 endemic northern regions. The malaria transmission season typically begins in December and ends in May with the peak transmission months being April and May. The Ministry of Health and Social Services is conducting indoor residual house spraying (IRS) to reduce the malaria mosquito population responsible for transmission as one of several prevention strategies.