14 Dec 2022

Kgalagadi District Health Management Team (DHMT) has intensified surveillance to prevent any  disease outbreak.

Speaking during Kgalagadi District full council meeting on Monday, chairperson Mr Hendrick Jacobs said the district was able to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and diarrhoea outbreak.

He said they were also mobilising to strengthen response to polio outbreak.

Health officials, he said, would conduct a mop up for polio vaccination campaign from December 12 to 16.

Furthermore, he said the vaccination would be for children under five years who had missed their vaccine doses. 

The council chairperson said the safe male circumcision (SMC) campaign, which started December 5, targeted school going population.

On other health issues, Mr Jacobs raised a concern that drug availability was still a challenge in public health facilities in the district, adding as of October 31, the overall stock stood below 50 per cent on average.

“Vital drugs were at 60.1 per cent, essential drugs at 41 per cent, necessary drugs 17 per cent, non-drugs 61.2 per cent with overall standing at 44.8 per cent,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said DHMT continued to strive to avail critical items through micro procurement, adding there had been slight improvement. 

He urged health officials to deal with the challenge quickly as it compromised community health.

As for Kgalagadi North, he said DHMT continued to vaccinate against COVID-19, adding to date, a total of 14 660 adults aged 18 years and above had been fully vaccinated since COVID-19 outbreak against a target of 15 097 people.

However, he said, booster dose for the same target population remained low, where only 6 350 people received booster doses that translated to a coverage rate of 42 per cent.

As for the age group of 12-17, he said full vaccination coverage stood at 86 per cent whereby 2 393 children out of a target of 2 794 had been vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Mr Jacobs said efforts were being made to protect various segments of the community; vaccination of children between 5-11 years was ongoing and first dose uptake stood at 95.3 per cent, while second dose was on progress where 2 661 people out of a target of 3 432 had been administered.

On health development, Mr Jacobs said Hukuntsi’s See & Treat Clinic, which was officially launched on October 26, targeted fight against cervical cancer.

He stated that the Ministry of Health had introduced an alternative method of screening for cervical cancer called See and Treat.

The screening method reportedly availed results to same day and enabled early detection of cervical cancer lesions.

Introduction of the service, he said, would increase coverage to the needy and reduce the frequent visits to the health care facilities by patients to check for results.

“This is a welcome development which should be applauded as it will save costs and time for our community members as well as promote efficiency in cervical cancer detection,” he said.

In his comments, Councillor John Lentshikang of Tsabong raised a concern over shortage of drugs in public health facilities, which he said had affected members of the community.

He said most people in Kgalagadi lived below the poverty datum line and could not afford to buy prescribed drugs from private facilities.

Mr Lentshikang called for speedy refurbishment of Tsabong Primary Hospital, which he said was presently not in a good condition.

For his part, Hukuntsi West councillor, Mr Kerapetse Jane, called for construction of a clinic in Hukuntsi saying the current asbestos one posed a health threat. 

He added that clinic staff houses were also built with asbestos, hence the need to source funds to build new facilities. BOPA