The Executive Director of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Ben Nangombe, says the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Namibia has strengthened the country's healthcare system and level of service delivery.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services planted three trees to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The anniversary cements the strong bond between CDC Namibia and the ministry and has seen the strengthening of laboratory capacity, among others, said Nangombe.

"CDC has also been supporting the ministry in the area of building workforce capacity to ensure adequate availability of skilled public health professionals and to strengthen laboratory systems to scale up and import HIV and tuberculosis diagnostics and viral load testing, CDC has also provided technical assistance to enhance disease surveillance and a health information system to collect and analyze data for improved programs and decision-making."  

In conjunction with the Ministry of Health and Social Services, CDC Namibia has made strides in addressing the challenges of TB, HIV, and COVID-19.

The US Charge d'Affaires, Jessica Long, says that the CDC Namibia and the Ministry of Health have prevented new infections and other disease outbreaks. 

"Our support has gone much further than HIV and TB; CDC's work has helped strengthen systems and structures for the broader public health system; CDC has also supported Namibia on many other disease outbreaks, both human and animal, including monkeypox, cholera, and COVID-19, just to name a few. Working with the Namibia Government, the CDC has put science into action to help children stay safe and healthy."