Health

According to  United Nations AIDS, UNAIDS, statistics, HIV prevalence rate in West and Central Africa is 2.3 per cent. In Cameroon, the rate is 4.3 per cent, while Douala has an elevated prevalence rate of 4.6 per cent. Of the 600,000 HIV-positive people in Cameroon, Douala accounts for 68,000, making the city the highest in the country with infected people.

The shocking statistics were disclosed by the UNAIDS Country Director, Dr Claire Mulanga Tshidibi, during the first ordinary session of the Douala City Council on April 1, 2016. She travelled to Douala to sign an agreement with all six Mayors in Wouri Division and the Government Delegate to the Douala City Council. The objective is to help get people to undergo HIV testing, follow treatment, reduce mother-to-child transmission and prevent new infections in order to reach “Objective 90 90 90” by 2020.

According to the Douala Declaration read by the Mayor of Douala II Sub-divisional Council, Denise Fampou, the city’s Mayors promised to help put an end to stigmatisation and discrimination against infected people, reduce HIV-related deaths, get people to know their status and follow-up treatment. They are also to work in collaboration with civil society organisations and other stakeholders to eradicate the plague.

Earlier, the Government Delegate to the Douala City Council, Dr Fritz Ntone Ntone, expressed satisfaction with the 20 per cent increase in the execution of 2015 city revenue, compared to 2014. He said 34.1 Billion FCFA of the 56.6 Billion FCFA allocated for 175 projects was used, compared to 2014 when just 28.5 Billion FCFA from the 44.9 Billion FCFA allotted for 120 projects, was executed. He said when projects begin late, they are likely to continue into the next financial year, but quickly added that the money meant for such projects must be kept aside.

With a balance of 15 Billion FCFA in 2014 and 22 Billion FCFA in 2015, Ntone Ntone admitted that the execution rate was weak, assuring that efforts will be made to step up work in order to carry out what was planned. Over 200 projects will be executed in 2016. During the council session, the Senior Divisional Officer for Wouri, Naseri Paul Bea, lauded UNAIDS’ initiative to fight the HIV pandemic. He urged the City Council to lay more efforts on revenue collection, enjoining management to hurry up with work on major projects like the rehabilitation of « Boulevard de la République.

Cameroon Tribune

Details

Elangwe Pauline

06.Apr.2016

Hits: 6813

Write comment (0 Comments)

Cameroon's  Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda is reportedly fighting for his political survival in the Biya regime following the numerous scandals that rocked his ministerial department recently. Mama Fouda has held a meeting with regional delegates of health and directors of health facilities nationwide.

Details

CRTV

05.Apr.2016

Hits: 2260

Write comment (0 Comments)

Members of the board of Cameroon institutions charged with training nurses, midwives and health technicians began their 20th session meeting on the 30th of March 2016 at the Yaoundé Conference Centre. 

Public Health Minister Andre Mama Fouda was conspicuously absent. Opening the conclave, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Health in charge of Epidemics and Pandemics, Alim Hayatou stressed on the need for quality training that can offer improved healthcare in hospitals.

In a typical CPDM pattern, the Secretary of State avoided the numerous public health failures in the country and instead frowned at the reception in hospitals which to him is yet to be up to standards. The three-day meeting is expected to lay emphasis on ethics during training in health schools.

Details

CRTV

01.Apr.2016

Hits: 2282

Write comment (0 Comments)

A study entitled Maternity and Maternal Deaths in Douala has revealed that a woman dies every two hours while a newborn dies every six hours in Cameroon. According to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the mortality rate for children under 5 is 122, while the maternal mortality ratio increased from 430 to 782 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1998 and 2011.

Dr. Jeannette Wogaing,the author of the thesis noted that poorly trained staff and ill equipped facilities are the source of these alarming figures. She added that our public maternity hospitals have no doctors and are run by nurses not even midwives who are suppose to refer patients to doctors.

The implementation of the so called Human Resource Building Program for Reproductive Health initiated by the state which has already had financial and technical support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have so far failed to change the poor situation in the country.

Details

Sama Ernest with files from CIN

31.Mar.2016

Hits: 2121

Write comment (0 Comments)

The World Bank has just offered Cameroon the sum of 63.19 billion CFA francs in grants for the fight against HIV / AIDS and tuberculosis. Cameroon Concord understands this money will fund the prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child, new infections, care for those infected, TB and HIV co-infection, malaria and input monitoring and evaluation. 

According to Dr. Leopold Zekeng, UN AIDS Deputy Director for West and Central Africa, there are over 600 000 adults and children living with HIV AIDS, 48 000 new infections, 8,000 babies born infected each year, and a little over 30 000 deaths . Cameroon is 2nd on the HIV infection rating in West and Central Africa after Nigeria. Dr Leopold Zekeng say, "Many efforts have been made in 2005. Today it is just over 165 000. So there are about 600 000 who need treatment. Between those who need treatment and those who do not yet need, there is a gap. And that gap is not insurmountable”.

The controversial Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda, representing the Government of Cameroon, has welcomed the new funding saying "Cameroon is pleased to celebrate today the confidence granted by an international institution such as the World Bank- a body whose major donors are the United States, France, Germany, Italy ... and that confidence translated today by a non-refundable amount of sixty billion CFA francs”.

Details

Sama Ernest

23.Mar.2016

Hits: 2421

Write comment (0 Comments)

A flare-up of Ebola epidemic in Guinea has killed at least five people since December last year when the West African country was declared free of Ebola virus transmission. This came after a center that coordinates Guinea's fight against the virus confirmed two more deaths registered in recent days. "Since the re-emergence of the disease, we have recorded five deaths, three probable and two confirmed," Fode Tass Sylla, spokesman for the government's Ebola response unit, said in the capital, Conakry, on Tuesday. The world's worst recorded Ebola epidemic started in Guinea and killed about 2,500 people there by December last year.

Meanwhile, the new outbreak in Guinea has prompted fear in neighboring Liberia, which has lost more than 4,000 people to the deadly virus. Liberian Information Minister Eugene Nagbe said on Tuesday that Monrovia had closed a portion of Liberia's northern border with Guinea and planned to expand the cordon amid a resurgence of the virus. The tropical hemorrhagic virus emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013, infecting nearly 29,000 people. The disease later spread into neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Official data show the outbreak killed at least 11,315 people, but the actual toll is thought to be much higher as many deaths have purportedly not been reported. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) was harshly criticized for its slow response to the outbreak as local healthcare systems were not equipped enough to handle it. The deadly virus causes severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea. The epidemic in many cases shuts down organs and leads to unstoppable internal bleeding. Close contact with the sweat, vomit, blood or other bodily fluids of a patient, or the recently deceased could cause the contagious disease to spread. A small number of Ebola cases were also recorded in Mali, Senegal and Nigeria.

Details

Presstv

22.Mar.2016

Hits: 2638

Write comment (0 Comments)