04 Mar 2019

Okavango Sub-district CVouncil chairperson, Mr Mbahahauka Kambimba, has expressed concern over the increasing number of teenage pregnancy in his region.

Speaking at the opening of a sub-district council session recently, Mr Kambimba stated that 71 cases of teenage pregnancy were recorded this quarter compared to 49 in the last quarter.

He said the highest number of teenage pregnancy was recorded in Shakawe with 21, followed by Gumare and Etsha 6 with 10 cases each.

He said two cases of HIV positive pregnant teenagers were recorded at Etsha 6 and Shakawe, while all teenage pregnancy cases were out of school.

On interventions, Mr Kambimba said health education was conducted on STI prevention including condom distribution at Shakawe Senior Secondary School and Kathiana Primary School for both teachers and students.

“Community conversation was done at Xakao in November 2018 where 400 male and 100 female condoms were also distributed. 27 000 condoms were distributed during the festive season at tuck shops, guest houses and police road blocks,” said Mr Kambimba.

Gumare Youth Friendly Service clinic is also said to be running well and group education was done at the clinic, he noted.

Meanwhile, Okavango DHMT is still facing critical shortage of midwives as only two reported for duty during this quarter from the 18 that were to be replaced.

He said the district was operating with 30 midwives and was unable to conduct refresher course trainings since this would leave facilities without midwives.

“The DHMT is also experiencing shortage of doctors, as out of eight clusters in the sub district, only four have stationed doctors while the remaining four (Gumare, Xakao, Beetha and Sepopa clinics) are serviced on outreach, he explained.

He said Gumare primary hospital had a total of eight  doctors, of which three of these were for administrative work while the remaining five were medical practitioners.

He said there was a shortage of six medical practitioners for Gumare primary hospital and 10 for the clusters, which translated to shortage of 16 doctors for the whole sub-district.

The DHMT like other departments is also affected by water shortages, which Mr Kambimba said led to compromised infection control practices and compromised quality of care to clients.

Still on health issues, it was revealed that the average drug availability of the sub district was at 85.1 per cent for vital, 73.3 per cent for essential and 38.3 per cent for necessary.

The DHMT and the country as a whole is said to be experiencing low supply from central medical stores and an influx to private suppliers which also caused inconsistency and long lead time. ENDS