[pronut-hiv] Namibia: Nam Children Still Dying From Preventable Diseases

["ProNut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthnet.org>]

The Namibian ( http://www.namibian.com.na/ ) (Windhoek)

30 January 2008
Posted to the web 30 January 2008
Tanja Bause
Windhoek
Many children in Namibia continue to die from curable and preventable
diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea, while maternal and infant
mortality rates have increased.

This is revealed in a Unicef report released in Windhoek on Monday.
'Redoubling Efforts on Child Survival in Namibia' is a supplement to the
Unicef's 'State of the World's Children' report that was launched. It
was launched by Health and Social Services Minister Richard Kamwi and
Unicef country representative Khin-Sandi Lwin.

Kamwi said his Ministry was still analysing data which shows that the
Maternal Mortality rate has doubled from 271 in 2001 to 425 in 2006.
Namibia's Infant Mortality rate has also increased - from 38 per 1 000
live births in 2000 to 46 deaths in 2006.

Information links the increase to HIV-AIDS, but given that
prevent-mother-to-child transmission of HIV programmes were rolled out
in 2006 - at the same time as the survey was done - the expectation is
that the situation will improve.

The main causes of under five deaths are identified as pneumonia,
diarrhoea, a combination of low birth weight and prematurity, HIV-AIDS,
malaria and malnutrition.

One in every three children is not getting adequate nutrition and care
to ensure proper growth and development.
However, the situation in the regions is much worse with Kavango
topping the statistics.

About four in every 10 children are malnourished in the region.
"This has long-term implications for school achievement as well as for
overall economic development of the nation," the report says.
Lwin said although it was not good news for the country, the
information was not new. "We have anticipated these developments for
several years now, even in the absence of concrete data and evidence,"
she added.

In 2001, while preparing the Government-Unicef Programme of
Co-operation for 2002-2005, the analysis predicted the likelihood of a
20 per cent increase in the proportion of child deaths due to HIV-AIDS.
This was again stressed in the UN Common Country Assessment done in
2004.

The assessment highlighted the multiple impacts of HIV-AIDS on food
security and productivity as well as the diminishing capacity of
critical government services and governance such as health and
education. In 2005 Unicef published an Issue Paper, 'Focus on Namibia's
Total Health' with the subtitle of 'Children's Health Threatened' by the
impacts of HIV-AIDS. It noted that "Namibia's overall heath will not be
improved by treating HIV alone or in isolation" and "as HIV is weakening
the overall health of Namibia's population, it is also weakening the
capacities of the health system to efficiently function as well as its
ability to tackle the epidemic".

The 2005 'Total Health' paper concluded with the recommendation that
"considering the health challenges the nation faces, it is imperative
that Namibia's overall health must remain a priority for the country's
development planning, budget allocation and donor assistance".

Lwin praised Government for effectively mobilising the nation and its
resources to control the polio outbreak in 2006 in just two rounds of
immunisation and for rolling out anti-retroviral treatment in just two
years, exceeding global World Health Organisation targets.

"We can say with clear and hard evidence that when the Ministry of
Health and Social Services, the Cabinet and the civil society of Namibia
put their minds and resolve to an issue, we can see definitive
results."