Namibia’s capacity to detect and respond to public health threats is expected to improve significantly following the launch of the Event-Based Surveillance (EBS) Guideline in Windhoek on Monday.
World Health Organisation (WHO) representative Richard Banda says the guideline is part of the third edition of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy, which Namibia officially adopted in June 2023.
“This is an indication of commitment to strengthening public health security,” Banda said at the launch.
He said EBS is defined as “the organised collection, monitoring, assessment and interpretation of mainly unstructured, ad-hoc information regarding health events or risks, which may represent an acute risk to health”.
This information can originate from various sectors, including animal health and environmental monitoring.
“I would like to commend the health ministry, with support from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and other partners, for their leadership in developing and adopting EBS modules tailored to the Namibian context,” he said.
Banda said the aim of the IDSR guidelines is to strengthen the country’s ability to “detect, report, confirm, and effectively respond to high-priority diseases”, while aligning with the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), which obligates member states to report health events in a timely manner.
“Almost every country in the African region has invested resources to build public health surveillance systems that prevent unnecessary illness, death, and disability,” he said.
Banda said the WHO has so far supported the training of over 300 Namibian healthcare workers on the new IDSR guidelines.
“These trained health workers are expected to serve as champions for IDSR, including the EBS guidelines we are launching today,” he said.
The WHO representative also raised concerns about ongoing outbreaks in the country.
“Namibia is currently experiencing concurrent outbreaks of malaria and cholera, which require additional resources to ensure that the outbreaks are controlled, ” he said.
Banda added that as malaria cases begin to decline, preparedness activities must begin before the next rainy season.
CHOLERA
On the cholera outbreak at Opuwo in the Kunene region, Banda called for a multisectoral response and confirmed that the WHO has made additional resources available to deploy teams to Opuwo and is in the process of procuring laboratory supplies.
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The Ministry of Health and Social Services recently officially declared a cholera outbreak in the Opuwo district, following the confirmation of two cases of Vibrio cholerae 01, which is a strain known for causing outbreaks.
This was announced by the health minister Esperance Luvindao during a press briefing last Thursday.
“The preliminary tests have been made on all the reported eight suspected cases, as well as the confirmatory tests for the six cases. We now received the confirmatory test results for the first two cases,” she said.
Luvindao said the first four suspected cases, three children and one adult, were all from the same household at Opuwo. One of the individuals died due to severe dehydration.
As of 18 June, the ministry has recorded eight suspected cholera cases. Six of these, including the fatality, originated from a single household at Opuwo, while the other two are from the town and Otjimuhaka village.
“The confirmatory tests on the first two cases are now received and confirmed the presence of cholera, Vibrio cholerae 01 and the testing was supported by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa,” Luvindao said.