RUNDU – Special advisor on health issues in the Office of the Presidency, Dr Bernard Haufiku, who is also the national hepatitis E campaign coordinator, says Namibia must not allow hepatitis E to become endemic as it would be hard to remove.

Haufiku made the remarks during the Hambukushu Cultural Festival held at Mukwe on Saturday, where he represented Vice-President Nangolo Mbumba.

“We know that health is still a challenge in Namibia … Perhaps the most important message is that we have an outbreak of hepatitis E in the country and already in Kavango East and Kavango West hepatitis E has been reported, so I want to plead with you to do the very simple thing, and that is to wash your hands especially after shaking hands with other people and especially after going to help yourself, or any contact that you make, please wash your hands,” he said.

Haufiku advised people in the rural areas who normally defecate in the open as they lack toilet facilities to build their own ablution facilities to better curb the spread of the disease.

 “If you can make an ablution facility of your own, please I strongly encourage you to do so. As a coordinator for hepatitis E, I am here to support you. The reason why I’m saying that is because if we allow hepatitis E to become endemic, like other diseases, then we will never remove it from the face of Namibia, and I’m saying that because we have lost close to 50 people already due to this disease in the entire country,” he said.

“And more people are getting infected – so that is my message, if you can forget about TB, HIV or malaria, please remember hepatitis E is with us and let us all protect ourselves,” Haufiku noted.