Prof. Fidelis Cho-Ngwa, Head of DNA Laboratory, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Buea, has been speaking about the current process of certifying the Buea University DNA laboratory. In this interview with the nation’s national daily, Cameroon Tribune, Prof. Fidelis Cho-Ngwa hinted that UB DNA test will be cheaper

Cameroon Tribune: The University of Buea operates a DNA laboratory, a rare facility in Central Africa. How did it begin?

Fidelis Cho-Ngwa: We started research in 2014 and since then, we have been training Master’s degree students in Molecular Diagnostics. We have so far carried out 15 “peace of mind tests” on Cameroonians since 2015. The tests are so called because they were not ordered by any court. However, they enabled the clients to know whether they were biological parents or children of some people. I head the laboratory and have a number of people working with me, especially those who obtained the Master’s degree in Molecular Diagnostic Science the university runs. We have now changed the appellation of the degree to Molecular Epidemiology and Diagnostic Science, to broaden the scope.

Cameroon Tribune: Is the laboratory open to the public?

Fidelis Cho-Ngwa: We have not yet gone on a business scale. It’s still a research platform, but we provide some services to the public. For us to go business, we will need to first get the laboratory certified. For now, the DNA laboratory is certified for drug discovery for Onchocerciasis, a Pan-African ANDI Centre of Excellence, but not for Human Molecular Diagnostics. This is why we have not yet extended to the legal platform. In the months ahead, we hope to engage government and the university to get to the level whereby we can seek certification. If this is achieved, courts, social and immigration cases, and even identification of remains of accident and fire victims, etc, can be referred to us.

Cameroon Tribune: Are there other DNA laboratories in Cameroon?

Fidelis Cho-Ngwa: I am not aware of any other DNA testing laboratory in the country. We know that people collect samples and send abroad and wait for results to give to their clients. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to install a DNA laboratory in Cameroon. Some other laboratories may have some of the machines, but not the technological know-how or trained personnel we boast. We collect samples and finish everything in the same laboratory. For now, we don’t use sophisticated machines since we don’t have them yet. We use robust, time-consuming manual methods to arrive at exactly the same results. We have been all over the world and have been teaching the science in the University of Buea. We have mastered the technology and now carry out research in Molecular Epidemiology and Diagnostic Science.

Cameroon Tribune: What is the cost of your services?

Fidelis Cho-Ngwa: We will not charge less than 200,000 FCFA for simple tests. Abroad, people pay between 300,000 FCFA and 500,000 FCFA for such tests; plus the cost of collecting, preparing and sending samples and money. Overall, our tests will be about 50 per cent cheaper. The other advantage is that you can do the test in person. The distance that samples have to be transported is eliminated and the trouble of handling them is avoided.

The United Nations’ public health authority has criticized the international community for not doing enough to deal with the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic, saying the infectious disease is taking more lives than thought.

Latest data published on Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its 2016 Global Tuberculosis Report show that countries needed to move much faster to prevent, detect and treat tuberculosis.

TB kills 1.8 million people worldwide each year, not the 1.5 million previously estimated, according to the WHO’s Global TB Report 2016. The tuberculosis epidemic is larger than previously thought, while research into vaccines and cures is “severely underfunded,” WHO warned.

The report emphasized that countries needed to tackle the epidemic through “bold political commitment and increased funding.” The amount of money being spent on research and development for TB treatments needs to be at least $2 billion per year, it added.

Presstv

Four children are reported dead after consuming a poisonous chemical used for spraying grass (Monkam) in Tombel, Southwest, Cameroon. From the Video below, the mother of the children, Susan Mentaindam, narrated that the children had mistakenly used the white monkap as table salt to eat their plantains with oil.

This incident comes barely a year after a whole family died in their sleep in Moliwe, Limbe, after consuming a sumptuous porridge cooked with fertilizer mistaken for table salt. 

As Cameroon embraces 2nd generation agriculture where more chemicals will be used to enhance productivity, it it high time, sensitisation is done on chemical use so incidents like this will be prevented.

Culled from Yannick Fonki Ndalay

Cameroonian born Dr. Richard Munang has won the 2016 Africa Environmental Hero Award after a series of faithful services rendered as United Nations Environment’s Climate Change Coordinator for Africa since 2013.

Dr Richard Munang was conferred the title on 1st September 2016 by the International Environmental Round table for Africa in Abuja-Nigeria.

The award was handed by Nigeria’s Honorable Minister of State for Environment Ibrahim Usman Jibril. Dr. Richard dedicated the award to the entire people of the continent and most especially his parents.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump may not be mentally fit to serve as the president of the United States, suggests Mika Brzezinski, an American author, journalist and television host.

Brzezinski said on Monday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC that “it’s time to hear from somebody in the mental health community, to look at this person who has been on television for months and give us a sense of what we have going on here.” “Let’s stop pretending we’re dealing with someone who we can completely understand,” she said. “When you see someone who you think has problems, you know it. And there’s not anybody at this table who doesn’t think he has some sort of problem. Let’s ask the questions.”

The guests on the show included Eddie Glaude Jr., a professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Princeton University, and former Ted Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler. Brzezinski said that she and Joe Scarborough, the co-host of the program, have been asked multiple times about Trump’s mental health by people.   Brzezinski is the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser for former US President Jimmy Carter.

Scarborough argued that psychiatrists cannot appear on the show on and diagnose Trump, but Brzezinski pointed out they could look at character traits that “we are seeing repetitively here.” On Sunday, Trump called on his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, to release “detailed medical records,” adding he would have “no problem” issuing his own medical report. But his only public medical record — a letter written by his physician that was released in December — has recently been under scrutiny.

The New York billionaire’s doctor, Harold Bornstein, wrote in December that Trump’s medical examination “showed only positive results.” “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” Bornstein wrote in the letter dated December 4. Doesn’t a positive result mean a negative outcome in medical examinations? Trump’s opponents have asked.

Presstv

A fire has consumed the Maroua Red Cross ware house. All the medical stocks of the international Red Cross society in a warehouse situated in the Kosseyel beiy neighborhood in Maroua have been reduced to ashes by fire.

The rest of the humanitarian support items estimated at tens of thousands of tons would have also gone on flames were it not for the intervention of the Maroua rescue and firefighting brigade.

CRTV

Drugs for the treatment of different types of Hepatitis are now available in some hospitals in Yaounde and Douala. The information was made public by authorities of the Ministry of Public Health and has been confirmed by the President of the Association of Persons living with Hepatitis in Cameroon.

The availability of the drugs will soon be moved to other towns where distribution centres will be created. Patients with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis will receive treatment for free and those who have only the Hepatitis Virus will receive treatment at a reduced and affordable cost.  Approximately four million Cameroonians are living with Hepatitis.

CRTV

An HIV-positive Malawian man, who says he is paid to have sex with children as part of initiation rites, has been arrested on the president’s orders. Eric Aniva, a sex worker known in Malawi as a “hyena”, was the subject of a BBC feature last week.

He told the BBC that he did not mention his HIV status to those who hire him. President Peter Mutharika said the police should investigate and charge him over the cases of defilement he had seemingly confessed to.

The BBC’s Ed Butler, who covered the story about Malawi’s sexual “cleansing practices”, says in some remote southern regions of the country it is traditional for girls to be made to have sex with a man after their first menstruation. Some of the girls are as young as 12 years old, he reported.

What is known as a “hyena” in Malawi culture is usually a man who has sex with widows or married women who cannot fall pregnant.

“While we must promote positive cultural values and positive socialisation of our children, the president says harmful cultural and traditional practices cannot be accepted in this country,” presidential spokesman Mgeme Kalilani said in a statement

Mr Aniva would “further be investigated for exposing the young girls to contracting HIV and further be charged accordingly”, he said. The president had also ordered all men and parents involved to be investigated, Mr Kalilani said.

“All people involved in this malpractice should be held accountable for subjecting their children and women to this despicable evil,” the statement said. “These horrific practices although done by a few also tarnish the image of the whole nation of Malawi internationally and bring shame to us all.”

Last year Malawi banned child marriage, raising the legal age of marriage from 15 to 18 – something activists hoped would put an end to early sexual initiations. Mr Aniva told the BBC that he planned to stop taking part in sexual cleansing practices.

BBC

The two storey edifice was inaugurated on Friday 1^st of July 2016 by the Minister of Public Health Andre Mama Fouda in the company of the French Secretary of State in charge of Development Andre Vallini; the French Ambassador to Cameroon Christine Robichon and the Director of the Cameroon Medical Research Centre Guy Vernet.

The laboratory which is situated at the Cameroon Medical Research Centre in Yaounde has been created in order to step up the fight against Malaria. It is equipped with modern scientific tools such as high resolution microscope. The National Reference Laboratory for Malaria Research Project was constructed with funding from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy Planning and Regional Development, and the French Corporation.

CRTV