Namibia, Zambia in joint HIV fight at border posts

Namibia's Walvis Bay Corridor Group's (WBCG) Wellness Service is collaborating with Zambian health officials to establish the first Cross Border HIV/AIDS Initiative (CBI).

The project's objective is to have a series of Wellness Clinics serving truck drivers along the Walvis Bay corridors.

Wellness Project Manager, Edward Shivute, recently met with officials from the Ministry of Health of Zambia to discuss the set-up of the new clinic in Shesheke, Zambia, which is to be opened by Oct. 2016.

The clinic is set to offer HIV Counselling and Testing, CD4 Count Measurements/Tests, STI Screening and Treatment and Risk Reduction and Counselling.

It will also offer Social Behaviour Change and Communication Tools, Basic primary Health Care, Hypertension and Blood Pressure Testing, Glucose Testing, TB Screening and offer referral to appropriate treatment, care and support services.

The Clinic will, however, not remain in the Wellness Service's care. "We are merely lending our expertise in running Wellness Clinics," Shivute said.

The WBCG is tasked with providing the clinic and operating it for a year before the reigns are handed over to Zambia's Health Ministry. In turn, Zambia will ensure that the clinic receives competent personnel, provide the necessary medical consumables and ensure the clinic operates according their Government's policies and regulations.

This Wellness project, funded by SADC through the Global Fund, has three operational clinics located at the Port of Walvis Bay, at the border in Oshikango along the Trans-Cunene and at the border in Katima Mulilo along the Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Development Corridor.

WBCG is the prime driver of self-sustaining HIV and AIDS/Wellness Workplace Program in the Namibian transport sector and across the SADC region. 

Source : XINHUA