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There are no laboratory facilities that are necessary for diagnosing and treating typhoid fever in Sierra Leone and health care professionals diagnose patients based on their symptoms.  Also, other tests are excluded from the government’s Basic Package of Essential Health Services, according to the study titled: ‘The invisible burden: Diagnosing and combatting typhoid fever inContinue reading “Typhoid fever in Sierra Leone”

Handwashing was first observed as an important tool in public health in 1846 when a Hungarian physician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis discovered the importance of hygiene at a maternity clinic where women were dying in big numbers, semmelweis.org/about/dr-semmelweis-biography/.   Nearly 200 years later, medical doctors, public health experts, and policymakers continue to advocate for people to washContinue reading “Handwashing can save lives but do we really understand what this means?”

When ten-year-old Lilly Mae Avant and her family went swimming on Labor Day holiday (September 2, 2019), they had no idea that the healthy, high-spirited, country girl would be dead a few weeks later.  Avant died of brain-eating amoeba, which has a fatality rate of 97 percent. Naegleria fowleri is commonly known as brain-eating amoeba,Continue reading “Brain eating amoeba and climate change …Could warmer summers result in more infections?”

The Hepatitis E virus outbreak in Namibia has revealed how severe the disease is in pregnant women and statistics show that the majority of deaths occur in this vulnerable population. Fifty-six people have died from Hepatitis E since the disease was declared an outbreak two years ago.   Thirty-six of the people who died from theContinue reading “Why Hepatitis E is severe in pregnant women”

While battling to contain the Hepatitis E virus which has spread like wildfire and recorded 6746 cases in the last two years, authorities in Namibia have observed yet another trend- Hepatitis A is also on the rise.  In the last three years, there have been over 2 200 Hepatitis A cases recorded countrywide. Although officialContinue reading “Hepatitis A on the rise in Namibia”

My name is Alvine Kapitako and I am a Science Journalist based in the United States of America. I have experience in health and social reporting from my home country, Namibia. I have a keen interest in public health epidemics and this is partly how this blog came into being. When my Science Writing forContinue reading “About”