Health

The fate of some 695 type 1 diabetes patients is at stake as the end of a support programme gradually draws closer. In 2010 Novo Nordisk laboratory in Yaoundé undertook a seven-year support programme to help diabetic patients below 21 years.

During the seven year period that ends son, the laboratory claims have made considerable effort to reduce mortality by a large margin of about 70%. That is, from 80% to 10%, disclosed Dr Mesmin Dehayem who is a specialist in diabetes.

Nine clinics were constructed over the seven years to handle the patients diagnosed with type1 diabetes.

As the programme draws to an end several parents are running out of hope, especially as the “Minister of Public Health has remained silent on the issue”.

Type 1 diabetes mostly affects children and adolescents, and very rarely adults. Thousands of Cameroonians suffer from this terrible disease.

Medical experts say type1 diabetes is caused by insufficient production of insulin, production of defective insulin or the inability of cells to use insulin properly and efficiently. Insulin, they say, is a hormone that is produced by specialized cells of the pancreas which helps to control the amount of sugar in the blood.

Symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, bedwetting in children who previously did not wet the bed during the night, extreme hunger, unintended weight loss, fatigue and weakness, blurred vision, etc.

In the meantime, people are inviting the government to give it a listening ear in order to save several lives at stake.

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Tasha Seidou

06.May.2017

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 Concerns are rising that many diabetic patients in Cameroon could end up dying if they don't get the drug. The government has put the blame on the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Although the Cameroonian government claims it has huge quantities of insulin, a drug that helps keep the sugar level from getting too high or too low, pharmacies said they had little stock left of the medicine.When found, patients told DW that the prices had increased tremendously. The association of diabetic patients in Yaounde says several members have died and many more could suffer the same fate if they don't receive insulin.

Engolo Etienne, 54, is one of the patients who succumbed to the illness. According to his elder brother, Engolo Reuben, Etienne died at Yaounde's central hospital after developing a nerve damage from histype 1 diabetes because he did not have access to the right medication.

"During our stay in the hospital, we had hopes that he would recover, but suddenly he could no longer drink or eat. He had problems around his neck and finally he just passed away. Drugs were prescribed but at times what was given was not what we usually expected," Reuben told DW in an interview.

Reuben, who also suffers from diabetes believes that many patients like him may die due to a shortage of the life-sustaining insulin. His statement was echoed by Rita Tchuente head of the association of people living with diabetes in Yaounde.

"Those selling [the drugs] do not give explanations. When you show your doctor's prescription, they tell you the drugs are not available and then you have to search in pharmacies in town,Tchuente said. She said most patients often return to the hospital without the required medication. "Please do something for us," Tchuente pleaded.

Broken supply chain

Drugs in Cameroon are supplied by the drug agency called CENAME. Joseph Vaillam, CENAME's Director General says the shortage may be due to some dysfunctioning in the supply chain.

"CENAME is like a central unit that receives the medication from foreign countries because insulin is not produced in Cameroon,'' Vaillam said. ‘‘We then proceed by distributing to statutory clients as defined by the ministry of health." According to Vaillam, Cameroon's Ministry of Health is the only organ in the country that has access to insulin provided by CENAME.

Cameroon reported 700,000 cases of diabetes in 2017. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 190 million people suffer from diabetes worldwide. By 2025, that figure will rise to about 330 million patients. The disease is becoming one of Africa's biggest health challenges.

People with diabetes have to rely on insulin for the rest of their lives. Being overweight and leading sedentary lifestyles can lead to diabetes. However, patients can improve their general condition by turning to a healthy diet and committing themselves to regular exercise. There is no known cure for diabetes and if left untreated it can kill.

DW

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Rita Akana

21.Apr.2017

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GENEVA — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that unprecedented progress had been made in tackling many of the world's most disfiguring and disabling neglected tropical diseases over the past 10 years.

Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said there has been "record-breaking progress towards bringing ancient scourges like sleeping sickness and elephantiasis to their knees."

About 1.5 billion people in 149 countries, down from 1.9 billion in 2010, are affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTD), a group of 18 disorders that disproportionately affect the very poor.

In 2007, the WHO and a group of global partners devised a strategy for better tackling and controlling NTDs.

Five years ago, a group of nongovernmental organizations, private and public partners signed the London Declaration, committing greater support and resources to the elimination or eradication of 10 of the most common NTDs by the end of the decade.

"That has been a game changer in the expansion of NTD interventions worldwide," said Dirk Engel, director of the WHO's Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Meeting on Wednesday

The WHO's fourth report on neglected tropical diseases was launched to coincide with a one-day meeting Wednesday at the agency's headquarters to take stock of what has been achieved in the fight against NTDs and to explore ways to move the process forward.

Engel said health ministers, representatives from pharmaceutical companies, academics, donors and philanthropists "will look at the changing landscape of NTDs" and explore better ways of integrating the fight against these diseases into global health and development.

The report described achievements made in controlling the debilitating diseases. For example, it noted that an estimated 1 billion people received 1.5 billion treatments donated by pharmaceutical companies for one or more NTDs in 2015 alone.

It cited dramatic successes in efforts to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic, disfiguring disease that attacks the internal organs.

"If you get it, it kills. There is no way out," said Engel.

The disease is prevalent in Southeast Asia, particularly in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Engel said a subregional program was organized to provide early treatment with donated medicines and vector control through indoor residual spraying, similar to that used in malaria control.

"With those two interventions, you reduce the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis almost to nothing," said Engel. "And the aim was to have less than one case in 10,000 people at the subdistrict level, which is a tough target."

He noted that the disease had been eliminated in 82 percent of subdistricts in India, 97 percent of subdistricts in Bangladesh, and eliminated entirely in Nepal.

"This is a result that we had not anticipated a few years back," he said. 

While Asia is burdened with the greatest number of NTD cases, Africa has the highest concentration of the diseases. Engel told VOA that between 450,000 and 500,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were infected by at least one tropical disease — but usually several — at the same time.

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Rita Akana

19.Apr.2017

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The minister of public health Andre Mama Fouda has warned medical doctors planning to begin a strike action today April 17, 2017 to retreat immediately or shall face severe sanctions. He says that the Medics have not obtained any authorization to carry out such an action.

According to Medical Doctors, the burning issues they had tabled to the government long time ago through the ministry of public health have fallen on deaf ears.

The first phase of the strike action organized by the national syndicate for medical doctors which was previewed to take place from today 17/04/2017 to Wednesday 19/04/2017 has as objectives to force government to review their salary situations & subventions amounts paid to Medical Doctors in the public sector, speed up the process of files treatment for the integration of medical doctors into the public service and increase their retirement age from 53 to 65 years.

According to a young medical Doctor, Andre Mama Fouda is just wasting his time. He says the strike must hold.

“We have been on this issue for a long time now. The government has not addressed any of our demands. They have forced us to this decision and we must carry on with it” the disappointed Medic says.

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Rita Akana

17.Apr.2017

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The syndicate of Medical doctors in Cameroon has announced that medical doctors in Cameroon would be going on a nation wide strike from the 17th of April if their demands are not met.

Their demands are in issues concerning medical health care to Cameroonians, salaries for Doctors, integration of doctors into active service, increase in retirement age of doctors from 55 to 65 years.

 T

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Rita Akana

13.Mar.2017

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The Permanent Secretary of the National Malaria Control Programme, NMCP, Dr. Dorothy Ashu, has disclosed that malaria kills at least 4,000 people each year in Cameroon.

Dr. Ashu made the disclosure on March 2, 2017 in Yaounde while presenting the national strategy to fight against malaria at a sensitisation workshop for personnel of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, MINTSS, on the dangers of the disease, its diagnosis and prevention.

Presenting the situation of the fight against malaria in the country, Dr. Ashu said many people identify the NMCP with the distribution of the long lasting treated mosquito bed nets.

She admitted that the distribution of the nets is one of their visible activities geared at combating malaria even though there are many other things they do amongst which are, coordination of activities and the mobilisation of resources for the fight against malaria.

Ashu was speaking within the framework of activities building up to the commemoration of the 32nd International Women Day on March 8 organised by Malaria No More, MNM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, MINSANTE and MINTSS with support from the EXXONMOBIL/COTCO Foundation.

She stated that according to data gathered from across the country, at least 2 million cases of patients suffering from malaria are recorded in health facilities and out of that figure; at least 4,000 people are killed by the disease.

Ashu added that the figure is likely to be higher because there are many other cases that are not taken to the health units. She said as of 2011, the prevalence rate of malaria in Cameroon was 33.3 percent while morbidity and mortality stood at 30 percent.

Dr. Ashu noted that the consequences of malaria are enormous on the patients, households and the national economy.

The disease results to loss of weight, severe anaemia, convulsive crisis, abortion, etc. She said the socio-economic consequences include poor performances in school, absenteeism at work, drop in productivity, different psycho-emotional crisis, increased poverty considering that it takes 40 percent of household health expenditure.

The medic cautioned the participants that not all fevers are synonymous to malaria reason why tests must be conducted to ascertain that somebody is suffering from the disease before treatment is engaged.

Describing the female anopheles mosquito that spreads malaria as the enemy, Ashu said prevention remains the main strategy of malaria control.

She reiterated that sleeping under the long lasting treated mosquito net is the most effective tool used across the world to control malaria.

Meanwhile, the MNM Country Director for Cameroon, Olivia Ngou, said the NGO that has existed in Cameroon since 2006, and is working in line with the objective of the World Health Organisation, WHO, geared at eradicating malaria by 2030.

Referring to the target of MINSANTE, Ngou noted that they are also working along with them to reduce malaria-related deaths by 75 percent come 2018.

Ngou said their programmes target all segments of society and people of all backgrounds as they use three main axis notably communication, advocacy and social mobilisation to pass across key messages aimed at combating malaria. She particularly mentioned the key role MNM played in the distribution of some 8 million long lasting treated mosquito bed nets in 2011, 2015 and 2016. She also talked of the role of the 24 K.O. PALU Ambassadors in communities and schools where people are educated on the proper use of the mosquito nets.

One of the ambassadors, Dorette Bouwe Zitou, told the participants that good health has no price and that just listening to a piece of advice in a workshop like the one MNM organised and putting it into practice can positively change many things in one’s life.

Opening the workshop earlier, the Inspector General at MINTSS, Dr. Jean Calvin Naoussi Sadeu, hailed MINSANTE, the NMCP and MNM for sensitising the personnel of the ministry on malaria.

He said everyone is likely aware of the ravaging effects of malaria reason why he urged his collaborators to demonstrate discipline, be attentive and make good use of the messages delivered.

The participants went home with various gadgets carrying anti-malaria messages as well as the long lasting treated mosquito bed nets.

Cameroonpost

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Rita Akana

12.Mar.2017

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