2, August 2020
Charity Groups Protest Abuse of Mental Health Patients 0
Seven leading mental health charities in Cameroon on Saturday led protests in the central African state’s capital, Yaoundé, against harsh treatment some African healers give people with mental illness. Some psychiatric patients undergo several forms of torture from healers who believe mental illness is divine punishment for wrongdoing.
The protests were provoked by the chaining, detention and torture of a man believed to have epilepsy, frequently leading to memory loss.
Juniour Lawan, 24, said when he had a series of epileptic seizures four years ago, his parents said he was a fool and stopped him from going to college. He said he finds it very difficult convincing his family and friends that he temporarily suffers from memory loss but insists that he is not a fool as they claim.
Lawan said after three years of hardship, he escaped from the home of a healer in the town of Ntui, about 80 kilometers north of Yaoundé. He said while there he was forced to look at the sun for three minutes every day as a form of healing. He was also beaten and given some concoctions to drink as part of what the healer said was a cleansing from evil spirits.
Unfortunately, Lawan said he did not find peace at the Yaoundé residence of his older brother, Diedonne Sadi. Sadi said he did not want his brother, who he knows is under an evil spell for wrongdoing, to live with him.
Sadi asked his neighbors to chain Lawan’s feet and hands to stop him from destroying the roof of his house. According to Sadi, Lawan escaped from the healer’s care because Lawan is not only mad but possessed by evil spirits. He plans to take Lawan to exorcist priests for deliverance.
Lawan told the police, where he was taken for safety, that he struggled to escape through the roof because of the pain from beatings.
His story spread like wildfire and on social media platforms, attracting the attention of mental health charity groups.
Dr. Nchouat Lyonga Kharim Charles, who treats psychiatric patients in Yaoundé, said the charities organizex the protests in Yaoundé to inform people that mental illness can be treated at hospitals. He said the burden on families who find it difficult to take care of mental patients will be reduced if they simply take them to psychiatric hospitals.
“It will reduce the stigma, the pain and the harm caused on these patients, like stigmatizing and insulting them on their predicament,” he said. “Giving them over to traditional healers, where they are abandoned to themselves and left at the mercy of these healers. Where people suggest sex as a channel of healing because they consider these diseases to be spiritual or at worst they are even abandoned to the streets.”
Traditionally it is believed in Cameroon that generational curses, God`s punishment for wrongdoing, and witchcraft or spiritual possession are responsible for mental illness.
Cameroon’s government adds that trauma from the four-year separatist crisis in English-speaking regions and stress from Boko Haram terrorism in northern Cameroon have increased mental illness in the central African state.
Source: VOA
3, August 2020
Global coronavirus cases top 18 million as WHO warns of ‘response fatigue’ 0
The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide passed the 18-million mark on Monday, with the World Health Organization warning that the effects of the pandemic “will be felt for decades to come”.
The virus that causes Covid-19 has killed more than 687,000 people since it first emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources.
Fresh clusters have been reported in countries that had previously brought their outbreaks under control, forcing governments to reimpose lockdown measures despite worries over further economic fallout.
Australia’s Victoria state imposed fresh, sweeping restrictions on Sunday, including a curfew in Melbourne for the next six weeks, a ban on wedding gatherings, and an order that schools and universities go back online in the coming days.
“Anything short of this will see it drag on for months and months and months,” Victoria premier Daniel Andrews said of the outbreak.
Despite a lockdown, Melbourne has continued to report hundreds of new cases daily even as other states in Australia have reported zero or a small number.
Many other parts of the world are struggling with much bigger outbreaks.
Health authorities in South Africa, where a surge in cases had been expected after the gradual loosening of a strict lockdown, reported that infections exceeded the half-million mark.
The nation is by far the hardest-hit in Africa, accounting for more than half of diagnosed infections, although President Cyril Ramaphosa said the fatality rate is lower than the global average.
Latin America and the Caribbean passed another milestone on Sunday as fatalities in the region climbed to more than 200,000, with Brazil and Mexico accounting for nearly three-quarters.
Iran — battling the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak — reported its highest single-day infection count in nearly a month, warning that most of its provinces have been hit by a resurgence of the disease.
With infections and deaths still surging six months after it declared a global health emergency, the World Health Organization has warned of possible “response fatigue”.
“The WHO continues to assess the global risk level of COVID-19 to be very high,” the UN health agency said, adding that the effects of the pandemic “will be felt for decades to come.”
Europe case numbers creep up again
The deadly pandemic has spurred a race for a vaccine with several Chinese companies at the forefront, while Russia has set a target date of September to roll out its own prophylactic.
However, US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said it was unlikely the United States would use any vaccine developed in either nation.
As part of its “Operation Warp Speed”, the US government will pay pharmaceutical giants Sanofi and GSK up to $2.1 billion for the development of a Covid-19 vaccine, the two companies have said.
The US has now tallied more than 4.6 million cases and 154,793 deaths, while neighbouring Mexico has overtaken Britain to become the third-hardest-hit country in virus deaths — after Brazil and the US — with more than 46,600 fatal cases.
In Europe, where many countries had hoped their outbreaks had been brought under control, Norway recorded its first virus death in two weeks and Switzerland reported its case numbers had crept up again.
Despite the resurgence, Europe has seen demonstrations against coronavirus curbs.
Thousands protested in Berlin over the weekend urging “a day of freedom” from the restrictions, with some demonstrators dubbing the pandemic “the biggest conspiracy theory”.
The protests, in which many demonstrators failed to wear masks or respect social distancing rules, triggered calls for tougher penalties against those who violate curbs.
At least 45 police officers were injured and more than 130 people were arrested.
The pandemic has also continued to cause mayhem in the travel, sports, cultural and tourism sectors, with more airlines announcing mass job cuts and major festivals and cultural events scaling back.
Latin America’s biggest airline, the Brazilian-Chilean group LATAM, said it would lay off at least 2,700 crew, and British Airways pilots overwhelmingly voted to accept a deal cutting wages by 20 percent, with 270 jobs lost.
Austria’s month-long Salzburg festival celebrates its 100th anniversary, but now with a reduced programme and strict safety measures, including masks for spectators until they are seated.
The 80,000 tickets for the event — down from the usual 230,000 — have been personalised to enable contact-tracing.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)