The Kavango East and West Regions Health Directorate and Angola's Cuando Cubango Province held a three-day cross-border meeting at Rundu. 

The meeting was aimed at strengthening the corporation and sharing ideas on how to prevent cross-border diseases. 

The meeting takes place once a year to reflect on the challenges of cross-border diseases such as malaria and TB. The meeting also discussed HIV and AIDS. 

The health director for the Kavango West Region, Fransiska Hamutenya, noted there has been improvement in terms of collaboration and implementation of the recommendations from meetings. 

"We have identified one of our biggest challenges in terms of communication, which is the language barrier, and the only way we can strengthen our communication is for us to start learning languages."

It was proposed that a language booklet be published to assist the health workers.

Other challenges raised are high payment fees for Angolan patients, which cause them to disguise their identity and claim to be Namibians, causing inaccurate data collection. 

Patients are not able to cross borders after hours; lack of health infrastructure at entry points and inconsistency in data reporting are but a few of the challenges. 

Angola's Vice Consul in Namibia, Fredrico Antonio, urged the participants to implement the recommendations of the meeting.

"We have representatives from different departments in the ministry; we should be able to take up all these recommendations and improve the challenges, and those holding positions should put the correct masseurs into practice. Patients do not have time to wait."
 
The Chairperson of the Kavango East Regional Council, Damian Maghambayi, said regions bordering Angola will soon sign an agreement to tackle matters not only about health but other sectors as well.

"I think it's not only Kavango East Region; most of the regions in Namibia that are bordering with Angola are going to confirm our agreement on issues of the border so that these issues can be addressed."

The next meeting will be held next year in July in the Kavango East Region.