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Namibia: Cholera Cases Up to 455
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Oswald Shivute
Oshakati
The number of cholera cases reported in the Engela Health District has risen to 455, while the number of deaths remains at two, the Director of Health in the Oshana Region, Dr Naftali Hamata, says.
Hamata was recently appointed as the health co-ordinator for the North during the flood emergency.
Many areas in northern Namibia have been hard hit by floodwaters.
So far 65 000 people have been affected, while 4 000 people have had to be relocated.
Schools and businesses have been forced to close and people have lost possessions, homes and crops.
Successive waves of floodwaters have also increased health risks on a number of fronts.
Hamata told The Namibian that new cholera cases had been reported at Okatope village and in the Engela area of the Ohangwena Region.
Previously, most of the cases were from Angola or the border town of Oshikango.
Hamata said people were ignoring warnings from health workers to improve their hygiene, putting their lives at risk.
People in the flood-stricken North have been warned to wash their hands properly, boil all drinking water and not to relieve themselves in the bush.
"No cholera cases have been reported in the Omusati, Oshana and Oshikoto regions so far," said Dr Hamata.
However, he said 1 351 malaria cases were reported in Omusati between November last year and March 18 this year, with six deaths.
Oshana reported 172 malaria cases with two deaths, and Ohangwena reported 76 cases with one death.
Water purification tablets were being distributed to local clinics and villages to make drinking water safer, he said.
Unfortunately, many areas have been cut off by the floods and could only be reached by helicopter.
Hamata said the NDF had provided two helicopters to airlift medical supplies and health workers to inaccessible places.
The bigger of the helicopters is also used to transport food to isolated cattle herders, and is therefore not always available for medical flights.
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"Because of this, you cannot always go to your health facilities as planned.
You usually have to wait for some other days in order to be taken to those places by helicopter," Dr Hamata said.
He said it would be better to have three helicopters dedicated to medical emergencies.
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