Malaria continues to be a serious communicable disease whose impact on public health in Namibia is massive. Some improvement in reducing the number of malaria cases has been made in the country, but the sporadic availability of malaria diagnostic test kits (mRDT) continues to slow down government efforts to eliminate malaria in the country. Given the nature of current conditions, justification exists for a study to determine the factors associated with stock out of malaria rapid test kit (mRDT) in Namibia. Mixed method approach was employed, whereby in quantitative aspect, the study adopted a descriptive approach to acquire data from a period of five years retrospectively (2012 - 2016). To gain insight into qualitative aspects of the study, key informants at all levels of the supply chain in Oshana region were interviewed. Pharmaceutical knowledge of ordering mRDT is needed to prevent stock out of mRDT. It is a recommendation of this study that training is needed for staffs who are involved in ordering of pharmaceutical items.

Background: Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, many educational institutions in the world, swiftly adopted online teaching mode as a mean of teaching and learning to curtail the spread of the disease. Today, the number of cases and deaths has decreased significantly, and life slowly comes to normal. Despite the significant reduction of cases and deaths, some higher education institutions decided to continue with online teaching while some choose blended learning mode. The reasons being to prevent the spread against COVID-19 infections and other future pandemic, save time and improve teaching. Other institutions are not yet deciding the way forward. Is to investigate and suggest the right path to follow in higher education institutions in Africa/Namibia context in this digital era without denying access to education or compromising key learning domain. Method: Contextual reflection was applied to address the use of technology to morph learning and teaching in African/Namibia context. Results: The use of different online platforms, reflexive discussion, criticality, and praxis were identified as keys to morph teaching and learning in higher education. Conclusion: The right path on the use of technology after COVID-19 era is needed to effectively address the inclusivity and massification in higher learning institution despite the internet challenges the continent is facing.

Cerebral Palsy is a neurological disorder caused by a non-progressive brain injury or malformation that occurs while the child's brain is under development. This type of birth defects, pose a public health concern to the society, immediate family members and individual parents. The parents’ expectations to have a normal child becomes a nightmare when the child they were expecting is born with cerebral palsy. Therefore, revealing the experiences of mothers of children born with Cerebral Palsy is important in the process of finding ways to support these mothers and their children. The study explores and describes the experience of mothers of children with cerebral palsy. A qualitative approach following phenomenological, explorative and descriptive design was used to explore and reveal the experiences of mothers of children with Cerebral Palsy. The population for this particular study consisted of mothers of children with cerebral palsy in Oshana region and a sample was drawn from this population using purposive sampling method. Data were collected through indepth interview with 12 (twelve) mothers. The transcribed interviews and narratives from the research notes were organised into codes, main themes and sub-themes. Mothers were shocked, worried and were in the state of disbelief when they learnt about the condition of their children. They felt guilty about the child’s disability and blamed themselves as the reason for the disability of their children. They were traumatized by a family member or spouse who failed to accept the child with cerebral palsy. In order to alleviate the psychological stress, trauma, pain and disappointments, it is of utmost importance to develop an educational support program in the form of a stress coping framework to support these mothers to cope with the high stress levels. centers where they can overcome their psychological problem. There is a need for a coordinating body or counselling centers where parents of children with cerebral palsy should be referred after the final diagnosis is made to give appropriate direction and couselling to these parents, thus reducing stress levels.  

Background. Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities are critical in preventing, detecting, and managing sickness and injury, thereby lowering morbidity and mortality. This is easily accomplished through health education, which is one of the most effective disease prevention methods. Objective. The goal of this study is to evaluate the implementation of the health education technique in PHC facilities in the Kavango East Region. Materials and Methods. A quantitative method was used in conjunction with a descriptive cross-sectional design to evaluate the implementation of health education in PHC facilities in the Kavango East Region. Results. The outcomes show that 76% of patients who visit health facilities did not receive health education about their condition, and those who did receive health education know six times more about how to prevent the conditions they are suffering from than those who did not. The study also found that 49.14% of patients got information that was irrelevant to their conditions. These results indicate a statistically significant relationship (2.32 OR 0.93 at 95% CI) between patients who did not receive health education and frequent visits to the PHC facility with the same complaints. Conclusion. There is a lack of health education implementation in PHC facilities, with patients not getting or being provided with relevant health education to empower them to take care of their own health. The emphasis of PHC centers is on curative services rather than preventative and rehabilitation services. PHC facilities must improve health education as a critical approach to health promotion and disease prevention. This will allow patients to take appropriate preventive measures, resulting in fewer trips to PHC facilities.

BACKGROUND: The human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome epidemic remains a burden worldwide and young people constitute the majority of the burden. Establishing factors that influence the uptake of HIV counselling and testing among young people is mandatory to reduce HIV incidences, and hence help to prevent and control the epidemic. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine factors associated with the uptake of HIV counselling and testing among undergraduate students at the University of Nairobi, College of Health Sciences. METHODS: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Nairobi, College of Health Sciences among undergraduate students. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select participants and a mobile tablet device-based questionnaire on the Open Data Kit application was used to collect data. Univariable logistic regression was performed by using STATA software version 11.2. RESULTS: Factors that were independently associated with the uptake of HIV counselling and testing among the participants were; privacy of the location of the Voluntary Counselling and Testing center (AOR:8.1; 95%Cl:2.7-24.6; p<0.01), peer influence (AOR:1.6; 95%Cl:1.0-2.4; p = 0.05), duration in the academic programme (AOR:0.77; 95%Cl:0.25-2.28; p = 0.03), and whether the participants were sexually active or not (AOR:2.1; 95%Cl:1.3-3.2; p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Privacy during counselling and peer influence are among the risk factors which need to be addressed to increase the uptake of HIV Counselling and Testing.