Health minister Kalumbi Shangula has confirmed a nationwide malaria outbreak, amid claims that healthcare facilities in the Zambezi region are turning patients away due to shortages of antimalarial medication.
Shangula told The Namibian yesterday the ministry has sufficient medicine stock to address the malaria outbreaks in different regions in the past month.
Four people have died of malaria in the Ohangwena region since an outbreak in October last year. Robert Nandjila, the region’s health director, announced in January that recorded cases in the region had risen drastically: 600 cases in December 2024, compared to 2 422 in January 2025.
The Namibia Press Agency (Nampa) has reported that nearly 6 000 cases, including hundreds of hospitalisations and several deaths, had been recorded countrywide by the end of January this year.
Specifically, 5 898 cases of malaria including 840 hospital admissions and 28 deaths were recorded between December 2024 and 19 January 2025.
SUFFICIENT STOCK
Shangula refuted claims that there is a shortage of malaria medicine.
“The Zambezi region received antimalarial medicines while I was there last week and it’s sufficient to deal with the current outbreak,” he said.
Zambezi regional health director Woitha Kapumburu told The Namibian that, while they ran out of medicine due to the high number of cases in the region, they received more on Thursday.
The region recorded a total of 3 385 cases since January 2025, with one death.
“We received sufficient medicine and started distributing it to the clinics in the region,” Kapumburu said.
Some clinics in areas of the Zambezi region that are severely hit by malaria are still reportedly turning patients away without malaria medication as they are still out of stock.
A villager, Musweu Sibusiku, who spoke to The Namibian yesterday said his girlfriend tested positive for malaria at Sachona Clinic, but was sent away because there was no medicine.
“We were told to go to [another] clinic where I’m told that they have medicine. I hope we get medicine on that side,” he said.
Kongola-based community activist, Glen Shebo yesterday said clinics in the area had no stock of malaria medicine for the past two weeks, while recorded cases rise in the Zambezi region daily.
He added that Sangwali, Sachona and Choi are still out of stock, while Sesheke Clinic received stock on Saturday after the health minister’s visit on Thursday.
“However, at the rate the cases are coming in [the stock] will not even last the whole week because this is the clinic with treatment. Sesheke Clinic already reported 23 positive cases by noon yesterday. Over the weekend those who could afford went and bought the medicine they needed at the pharmacy,” he said.
Shebo said the health ministry should provide communities with mosquito nets in addition to medicine supplies, and find ways to reach vulnerable people in more remote areas.
“They should also equip health workers with medicine so that when they go into the villages and test the people they should treat them immediately. The distances people travel to the nearest clinics are far and not every sick person makes it there,” he said.
A local nurse, who spoke to The Namibian on condition of anonymity yesterday said some clinics like Masokotwani and Sesheske in the region have not had artemether-lumefantrine – the initial preferred treatment option for for malaria patients – for the past two weeks.
The nurse added that these are clinics where high numbers of malaria cases were reported.
“It was difficult to treat patients because the only other alternative was the injection called artesunate which is given mostly to admitted patients with complicated malaria. As we speak, patients from Linyanti Clinic are being referred to the hospital because they don’t have medicine,” the nurse said.
Other regions with malaria outbreaks such as the Ohangwena and Oshikoto regions have not reported medicine shortages.
Ohangwena regional health director Robert Nandjila yesterday said the region’s hospitals at Okongo, Engela and Eenhana are well-stocked where malaria is concerned.
“We are still safe and well stocked … and we are ready to deal with handling the cases,” said Nandjila.
Oshikoto regional health director, Joshua Nghipangelwa says the region has secured sufficient antimalarial medication and plans are underway to distribute them to the healthcare centres.
“Currently the situation is under control. We have enough drugs in stock to last us for quite some time. We have also placed an additional order to the regional pharmacy store at Oshakati today [yesterday] to add more anti-malaria drugs.
At the moment we are good and this is all because of good coordination with the regional pharmacist, district pharmacies and the team at the regional store,” he says.
Nghipangelwa notes that, to date, the directorate has recorded a total of 743 positive malaria cases with seven deaths since the outbreak last year.
He adds that the regional health centres have never run out of antimalarial drugs because of good coordination with the regional store pharmacist and the healthcare workers.
“We make sure that we first distribute medication to the districts that are highly affected to the least affected ones.
The regional pharmacist is always in communication with the district pharmacist as well in order to effectively carry out the distribution of anti-malaria drugs on time,” says Nghipangelwa.
He further urges the inhabitants of the Oshikoto region to stay and sleep in screened or air-conditioned rooms, and use a mosquito net in areas exposed to the outdoors.
Some communities in the Zambezi region have refused ministry outreach teams’ attempts to treat their homes with malaria prevention pesticides. Shangula over the weekend implored communities to allow ministry personnel access to their homes: “Please allow our spray teams to enter your homes to save precious lives”.
Efforts to contact Oshana health director Johanna Haimene on her cellphone went unanswered.
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