24 May 2021

Coordinator of the Kavimba oral health project, Mr Wandipa Tafila has praised the project for reducing oral diseases from 146.4 per cent to 78 per cent in the village.

The project was conducted from April 2019 to March 31 this year. Presenting a report of the project on Friday, Mr Tafila said during the project, which comprised screening and treating the community for oral health diseases, a total of 487 clients were attended to.

He said according to the 2011 Population and Housing Census, the village has a population of 549, hence this meant the project covered 88.7 per cent of the population.

Mr Tafila said through the project there was increased oral health knowledge and awareness by 12.8 per cent and since the commencement of the project in the village, the number of patients visiting Kasane Primary Hospital Dental Health Department reduced.

He said during the project a total of 297 community members, 154 students, 22 under-fives and 14 special needs population were screened.

Mr Tafila explained that from the 487 screened patients a total of 713 cases ranging from teeth trauma, impacted teeth, filling, scaling, extraction, among others were treated.

The head of Oral Health department in Kasane, Mr Mbangu Kashweeka explained that all pending treatments such as replacement of missing permanent teeth would be done after the department had attended to some logistics with the help of Palapye region.

He noted that while the project was supposed to be completed in March last year, it was extended up to this year as it was disrupted by the outbreak of COVID-19.

He said the Kavimba project came after the Satau one, which was done in 2018/19 and the department was yet to decide on the next village.

Mr Kashweeka said each year a small village was chosen and oral health screening done for the community. Further, he said oral health education and workshops were held in that village and at the end people were left clear and free of most oral diseases.

He said as part of decongesting the Oral Health Clinic in Kasane in addition to conducting village projects, the department conducted outreaches in Kachikau and Pandamatenga.

He thanked the residents of Kavimba for the cooperation and support in making the project a success. Ends