Pastor shares his suffering

A defence force chaplain stationed at the naval base in Walvis Bay, Pastor Simeon Kandjala, 55, wants to share his story of living with the skin disease psoriasis. He told Namibian Sun that he remembers very well how it started in June 1987, when he was in exile in Angola.

“I just woke up in the middle of the night of June 1987 with my whole body itching. I ended up scratching myself for the whole month,” Kandjala said.

In July of that year he decided to go to the clinic at the Tobias Hainyeko Training Centre in Angola, but they could not help him. He said he continued itching and was scratching himself to the point where an ugly rash developed on his stomach and chest.

“With my sickness, I was deployed at the north-eastern front (Detachment A) with my terrible itching and rashes all over my whole body. I did not tell my comrades because I thought if I told them they would think that I was afraid to go to battlebecause of the intensification of the war at that time. So, I decided not to say anything,” he said.

Kandjala said after independence he visited many doctors who told him that there were no medicines to cure the illness. “Many people started saying that I was the one who brought HIV and Aids from Angola. Due to this stigma, life was not good for me and I started wishing I would die.

“In 2008, with the help of my army commanders, I was sent to Cuba for treatment and that is when my life started getting better. In Cuba they gave me the medication that I am currently using and I have to continue using it,” Kandjala said.

He said the medicines are keeping him in better health, but they are very expensive. Some of them require him to submerge himself in seawater after applying them. The vaccines are ordered from England through a South African agent. He injects himself twice a month and the treatment costs him a minimum of N$20 000 every month, money which he raises with the assistance of Good Samaritans.

“When I started getting better in 2010, I decided to write a book called ''There is War Between Life and Death''. This is because as far as I am concerned there are many people who may need information about this disease which will be contained in the book,” he said.

Kandjala is requesting Namibians to assist him with publishing the book. He can be contacted at 081 484 4440.





Psoriasis

According to the World Health Organisation, psoriasis is a chronic, non-communicable, painful, disfiguring and disabling disease for which there is no cure. It has a great negative impact on the patient''s quality of life. It can occur at any age, and is most common in the age group 50 to 69.



The reported prevalence of psoriasis in countries ranges between 0.09% and 11.4%, making psoriasis a serious global problem. It remains unclear what causes it, although there is evidence for genetic predisposition. The role of the immune system in psoriasis causation is also a major topic of research.

Although there is a suggestion that psoriasis could be an autoimmune disease, no auto-antigen that could be responsible has been defined yet. Psoriasis can also be provoked by external and internal triggers, including mild trauma, sunburn, infections, systemic drugs and stress.