Namibia falls short in terms of medical research

Namibia is said to be behind in terms of medical research, with most of the studies done outside the country.

This came out during a health seminar and annual general meeting for the Namibia Medical Society (NMC) held at Ongwediva.

The seminar covered different health-related topics, including pharmaceutical procurement, endoscopic procedures that identify the presence of stones, tumours, or narrowing in the biliary and pancreatic ducts, and intestinal failure.

The topics were presented by experts who expressed concern over the lack of local medical research.

“Most of the evidence that we have is research that was done in other countries; we really do not have research that was done on Namibian conditions or the Namibian environment, so as a society, we are encouraging doctors to be interested and take up research so that we can figure out what our problems and solutions are,” said Dr. Linda Nangombe, Vice Chairperson of NMC.

Countries such as Mozambique shared with participants how they changed the tendering system by removing stumbling blocks.

“That is hopefully where Namibia will move one day, where we can cut out the middleman and cut out the tender system and the government can actually own its own pharmaceutical company, which can procure directly from the manufacturers, so this was very interesting and very interactive,” said Dr. Eusebio Macete. the Director General of Mozambican State Pharmaceutical.