A team of doctors successfully completed open heart surgery inside a Russian hospital that caught fire on Friday as firefighters battled the flames from the outside, regional emergency services said.

The wooden roofed building in the far eastern city of Blagoveshchensk caught fire and 60 patients were evacuated as it filled with smoke.

But a team of eight doctors performing the operation on the ground floor carried on.

“We had to save this person and we did everything,” Valentin Filatov, head of the cardio surgery unit, said in an interview with state television.

The Amur region branch of the emergencies ministry said electricity to the operating theatre was provided with a separate cable, while firefighters ensured smoke did not spread to the room.

After the operation, the patient was evacuated from the burning building to another hospital, the ministry added.

Medic Antonina Smolina said that “there was no panic” among the hospital staff.

Local authorities promised to award the doctors who continued with the operation and the firefighters who extinguished the blaze.

Source: AFP

Cameroon has begun vaccinating people against Cholera. The waterborne disease recently resurfaced in the central African country after going several months without reporting a single case.

Since last March, at least 1,890 cases of the disease have been detected. The ministry targets to vaccinate 33,600 people – mostly urban dwellers.

Cholera outbreaks are recurrent in Cameroon’s slums and neighborhoods which lack proper water drainage infrastructure and sanitation facilities.

“Concerning the epidemiological situation of cholera in Cameroon, you know that this disease is a permanent threat in our country, and at the moment several regions are declared at high riskt,” said James Longsi, a public health specialist.

Teams from the ministry of health are visiting suburbs to conduct sensitization before handing out the oral vaccines.

In the Youpwe district of Douala, vaccinations teams have been greeted by a reluctant public, with some people questioning whether the vaccines are not repackaged Covid-19 jabs.

Cameroon’s port city has reported over a dozen cases and one death from Cholera.

“Yes, it is understandable that with Covid19, people are reluctant to be vaccinated. But this vaccination in Cameroon is not the first. The greater North of Cameroon has experienced campaigns that have had no consequences on the health of the population, on the contrary we have had a decrease in cholera cases since the implementation of this campaign (…) And it must be said, the vaccine used in this campaign is safe and effective,” said Longsi.

Cameroon normally registers Cholera cases during and after its rainy season.

The vaccine is being given to women, men and children aged one year and over.

Cholera is a serious acute infectious disease characterized by watery diarrhea, vomiting and can kill a person within hours.

Source: Africa News

Covid-19 probably passed to humans from a bat via an intermediary animal, an international expert mission to China concluded in a report seen by AFP Monday, while all but ruling out a laboratory leak.

But the report, drafted by World Health Organization-appointed international experts and their Chinese counterparts, offers no definitive answers on how the new coronavirus jumped to humans.

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima has said that more than 400 health centers have been destroyed as a result of attacks by Cameroon government army soldiers waging a devastating military campaign against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons.

Vice President Dabney Yerima told members of the Ambazonia Interim Government cabinet on Sunday that the French Cameroun regime headed by Mr. Paul Biya and the French Cameroun elite force known as the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) are responsible for the destruction of more than 400 Southern Cameroons health facilities in the rural areas.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader added that more than three quarters of all health centers in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia are now closed, while medicine is now a rare commodity.

Yerima also said that the deliberate silence maintain by the international community has turned the Southern Cameroons conflict into the largest humanitarian crisis in the Gulf of Guinea.

The high-ranking Southern Cameroons Interim Government official further highlighted that the plight of Ambazonian children remains grim with many in the rural areas dying of preventable causes.

Dabney Yerima went on to say that in the days ahead, the Interim Government will be implementing the Big Rubbergun project to push back the occupying French Cameroun army soldiers.

By  Asu Vera Eyere

All festive events in Cameroon’s Centre region that hosts the capital city Yaounde have been banned, the region’s governor Naseri Paul Bea said in a statement Thursday evening.

He said the decision was taken following an upsurge in COVID-19 infections and deaths in the region.

The decision came after Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute told a COVID-19 task force meeting on Thursday to intensify sensitization campaigns as infections continue to increase in the Central African nation.

As of Friday, Cameroon had registered 47,669 COVID-19 cases, 38,820 recoveries and 721 deaths, according to data released by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: UrduPoint

The looming third wave of coronavirus infections and Europe’s struggle to mount a vaccination drive will dominate Thursday’s EU video summit, despite a welcome guest appearance by Joe Biden.

The new US president will address the 27 EU leaders by video link in the evening as Washington and Brussels put on a show of mending ties after the dramatic diplomatic battles of the Donald Trump years.

But his intervention will only be a brief respite from the main matter at hand: How to outpace the resurgent epidemic when drug deliveries came up short and vaccination campaigns started slowly?

Host Charles Michel, the president of the leaders’ European Council, had hoped to hold a substantive face-to-face summit, but was forced to accept a stripped down video conference as EU members reinstated lockdown measures.

The Europeans are angry that UK-based pharma giant AstraZeneca has failed to meet its vaccine delivery promises to the EU while ensuring smoother supplies to former member Britain.

But they are also squabbling among themselves over how to share the vaccines they have received, and not all are happy with the European Commission’s threat to block some vaccine exports.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen’s executive updated its month-old control mechanism on Wednesday, giving the bloc more power to block vaccine shipments to countries like Britain that produce jabs but do not export them.

The leaders will not be asked to vote on the measure, already provisionally applied, at Thursday’s summit, and most would back it if it helps pressure AstraZeneca to boost its deliveries.

But some — like UK neighbour Ireland, and vaccine producers Belgium and the Netherlands — are wary of any move to block exports from operations like Pfizer/BioNTech, which supplies both the EU and UK.

If the pharmaceutical industry’s global supply chains are disrupted, many countries could lose out, as both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government and von der Leyen’s commission accepted.

‘Win-win situation’

“We are all facing the same pandemic and the third wave makes cooperation between the EU and UK even more important,” they said, in a joint statement released to calm nerves after the EU tightened its rules.

The cross-Channel rivals are in discussions about how “to create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply for all our citizens” but have yet to come to agreement on how to share AstraZeneca doses.

The firm has delivered the EU only 19 million of the 30 million it had promised in the first quarter — and that pledge was itself a dramatic reduction from the 120 million it contracted for.

With some EU countries more reliant on the cheaper UK-designed vaccine than others, Brussels’ focus has turned to a plant in the Netherlands which the UK had planned to use for its own supplies.

Johnson is holding out, insisting that the UK contract with AstraZeneca must be honoured, but he is worried that Brussels could use the toughened export mechanism to cut Britain off from other EU-made vaccines.

A European diplomat told reporters that the UK and the Commission are negotiating how to better share AstraZeneca doses, and that the EU must not shoulder the shortfall alone.

Another sensitive issue is sharing out the vaccines Europe has received under the Commission’s joint buying strategy.

A group of smaller states, led by Austria, is demanding a revision in the distribution method after they came up short in the first quarter.

There is little sympathy in other capitals for their plight, however, as decisions were made on a joint steering committee where Austria and others failed to make use of opportunities to secure more batches.

Discussions are underway on a compromise, but some countries relied more heavily on AstraZeneca compared to more expensive — but in the end more successful — suppliers.

And, as one diplomat said: “Some countries just decided to buy fewer vaccines, it’s a tactic that can’t be blamed on the EU or other member states.”

Top envoy

Against this backdrop, Biden’s appearance, albeit by video from Washington, may prove a respite. European officials have been delighted with the new US administration’s warmer tone.

On the eve of the summit, Biden’s top diplomat Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day visit to Brussels after talks with NATO ministers and top EU officials, promising close coordination.

But fearing leaks from a less than secure videoconference, the leaders do not expect to be able to make decisions on many sensitive topics, and talks initially planned for two days will instead end late Thursday.

(AFP)

The pandemic is getting worse in many parts of the two Cameroons, with the numbers of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths on the rise, Cameroon Concord News gathered from a highly placed health official in Yaoundé who sued for anonymity.

The Biya regime medic also pointed out that nothing is being done by the political leadership to help combat the situation.

The Cameroon Covid-19 crisis was raised during an important zoom meeting in the Federal Republic of Germany attended by the much respected member of the German parliament Hon. Christoph Hoffmann.

Last week, the exiled leader of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Vice President Dabney Yerima said the virus is now in Southern Cameroons.  Yerima added that if the Bishops and leaders of other Christian communities including the Muslim Imams fail to act fast, they will be blessing coffins every five minutes.

The war in Southern Cameroons has prevented aid groups from implementing systematic testing, and the so-called regional and divisional hospitals continue to test only the most seriously ill.

Both La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons are now not only reporting increases in the number of cases but also an increase in the number of deaths.

The situation is concerning noted our source in Yaoundé.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

With the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon, health workers at the Specialised treatment centre in Yaoundé have pointed out the increase in the number of patients received on a daily basis.

Just three weeks ago, activities and traffic around the centre were not dense and traffic in front of the centre situated around the Mvog Mbi neighbourhood was fluid.

Fast forward to last Saturday and the place looks “silently” busy as patients are ferried into the centre from ambulances much to the helpless looks from family members who watch at a distance across the road.

“My brother has been admitted into this centre and we are waiting for news from the doctors since morning. We hope he can be better,” said Jacqueline Emana, who was almost in tears as she scouts for the least positive news of her brother who has already spent days at the centre.

Not far from her, another family all dressed in black looks helplessly in the direction of the centre. They are trying to negotiate the burial of their loved one who passed away but have been told burial will only take place in strict respect of prescribed measures. A couple of coffins are also lying around the corner, probably for other family members who had come for the mortal remains of their relatives.

The gloomy nature outside the centre almost paints the intense work that’s being done inside by health workers and how overwhelmed they have become.

According to information gathered on site, over thirty patients are admitted at the centre on a daily basis as the centre is becoming overwhelmed with patients.

In the centre, over two dozens of patients are on respiratory assistance while the bed occupancy rate has increased as can be seen in the various wards where just few beds are left. In a ward that is set to take up to 60 patients, just close to half a dozen beds are free.

This increase in the number of patients equally warrants a boost in the number of health workers as the Minister of Public Health has deployed additional workers to the centre, according to Dr Arouna Nchare, health worker on site.

If there were any doubts on the resurgence of the COVID-19, the mood and atmosphere around the Specialised Centre for the Fight against COVID-19 at the Mvog Mbi neighbourhood, casts all those doubts calls for the continuous respect of barrier measures.

Source: Journal du Cameroon

Cameroon has approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use against COVID-19, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said on Friday.

The Russian vaccine has now been approved in 53 countries, RDIF, which is promoting the shot globally, said.

Source: Reuters

Cameroon’s health ministry has suspended administration of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine it was scheduled to receive on March 20 as part of the global vaccines sharing scheme COVAX.

The ministry said in a statement that March 18 that the suspension was for precaution and prudence. It gave no further reasons for the decision or if it will go ahead and take delivery of its share of the vaccine.

Several countries have resumed use of shots on Friday after the European Union and British regulators said the benefits outweighed any risks after reports of rare instances of blood clotting that temporarily halted inoculations.

Source: USnews