The ||Kharas and Hardap regions will soon have an endoscopic campaign.

Speaking to nbc News, the Medical Officer at Keetmanshoop Hospital, Dr. Baku Motinga, said the objective of the campaign is to have a database of gastro and intestinal diseases.

The Onandjokwe Intermediary Hospital staff, which runs similar campaigns annually, will assist Dr. Motinga and the team. 

"They have a database that gives them a picture of gastro and intestinal diseases; however, the database is limited to the northern parts of the country, so now we want to expand it to cover the entire country in collaboration with the team. So that we can have a picture of the burden of disease in terms of gastro and intestinal diseases through the entire country."

Motinga emphasised that the campaign will assist the medical fraternity in approaching the treatment of the gastro and intestinal diseases.

"We are aiming at investigating patients who have problems struggling to swallow; it could either be solid foods; both are equally as significant. We are targeting patients who have epigastric discomfort, which might be burning in nature; we are also targeting patients who have severe abdominal pain that is worst at night as this is indicative of a source that appears in the first part of the small intestine in the stomach."

Motinga concluded by saying that the tentative dates for the campaign are the end of February or the first week of March.