The United Nations has approved the allocation of 1.7 million U.S. dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support the urgent response to the cholera outbreak in Cameroon, UN officials in Cameroon said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This CERF grant will enable the humanitarian partners to contribute to reducing cholera-related mortality and curb the spread of the disease, saving numerous lives,” said Olivier Beer, the Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim for Cameroon.

“The humanitarian actors are mobilized to support the cholera response. However, access to remote areas remains challenging as violence, movements impediments and poor condition of roads continue to hamper the humanitarian assistance in the region,” added Karen Perrin, the Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Cameroon.

The project will provide emergency assistance in case management, water, hygiene, and sanitation to communities affected by the cholera epidemic in the Southwest and Littoral regions of the country, according to the UN.

As of May 29, Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health had recorded 8,241 cases and 154 deaths in seven regions.

The Southwest region, which is already facing acute humanitarian needs due to violence, remains the most affected by the cholera outbreak with 5,628 cases and 90 deaths, followed by the Littoral with 2,208 cases and 58 deaths, the UN said.

Source: Xinhuanet

More than 150 people have died during a resurgence of cholera in Cameroon over the last eight months, the United Nations said on Monday.

“The health ministry registered 8,241 cases and 154 deaths,” to the end of May, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

Seven of the West African nation’s 10 regions have reported cholera cases.

The worst-hit is the English-speaking Southwest with 5,628 cases and 90 deaths, followed by the Littoral with 2,208 cases and 58 deaths, OCHA said.

Access to the Southwest “remains difficult” after years of violence between anglophone separatists and the army, said OCHA’s Cameroon office head Karen Perrin.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that is treatable with antibiotics and hydration but can kill within hours if left untreated.

Outbreaks occur periodically in Cameroon, which has a population of more than 25 million. The last epidemic occurred between January and August 2020, when 66 people died.

According ot the World Health Organization, researchers estimate that each year there are between 1.3 million and 4.0 million cases of cholera worldwide, leading to between 21 000-143 000 deaths.

Source: AFP

A new study by Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health has revealed that the Central African nation has witnessed a remarkable drop in new HIV/AIDS infections.

The study was presented on Tuesday in the capital, Yaounde during a meeting to evaluate strides made to combat the epidemic in the country.

According to the 18-month study, 3.5 million HIV tests were carried out since January last year and 93,000 people were confirmed positive with the South Region having the highest number of confirmed cases.

Zoung-Kanyi Bissek, a senior official at the public health ministry said the results indicated a drop in prevalence from 3.3 percent in 2020 to 2.7 percent this year.

“This shows that the strategies put in place are well on course and are recording positive results. In those strategies, women and children are particularly targeted,” Bissek told reporters.

Source: Xinhuanet

The news of the burning of the Manyu District hospital has hit many Cameroonians like a ton of bricks and many are asking many questions. What could have pushed anybody to burn down a hospital that is serving more than forty thousand inhabitants of the town of Mamfe and its environs?

From the first analysis made by the Cameroon Concord News Group’s correspondent in Mamfe who has visited the ruined buildings, it is evident that gasoline was used in the burning down of up to ten wards of the hospital.

“This is a coordinated act. How was this gasoline transported to the hospital when there are multiple checkpoints in and around Mamfe, the capital city of Manyu Division? There is a checkpoint in Mile One, there is another checkpoint opposite the hospital and there is a huge army camp in Besongabang, some two kilometers away from the hospital. How come none of the soldiers saw anything?” Our correspondent in Mamfe asked.

“I have been talking to many people around town and they say they saw soldiers heading in that direction yesterday at about 9pm Mamfe time and after they got into the hospital, there was a massive exchange of gunfire which sent the residents of the town to deck for cover in their homes, especially those living opposite the hospital. The military has to answer for this and there is nothing that will convince the people of Mamfe that the military is innocent,” our correspondent said.

“The government must launch a massive and transparent investigation and the investigators must talk with the people of Manyu Division if the facts must come out. There are many people who know the truth, but they are scared of talking. It is alleged that two French-speaking military officials had been seen in the day ferrying fuel from place to place, but the population thought nothing of it. The people of Mamfe thought it was the military and that the soldier might be travelling overnight, so they need extra fuel for their trip. These military officials must be investigated,” he said.

“There is much talking in Mamfe that the military thinks that carrying out such acts of violence and irresponsibility will intimidate the population into disconnecting from the rebellion. But this act is certainly going to be counter-productive. The people of Mamfe are angry both with the military and Amba fighters who do not have the capacity to undertake such a massive operation. I have called one of the Amba soldiers in Nchang, some three kilometers from the hospital, and he has stressed that they had not carried out any operations in that area. I have also talked with Amba generals in Mfuni and Ossing and they have also said that they cannot be destroying a hospital that is helping their own people. They have clearly pointed an accusing finger at the military, adding that how could that have happened when the military is directly opposite the hospital. There are many military checkpoints in Mamfe, and it is surprising that such an elaborate scheme can be implemented without the knowledge of the military,” he stressed.

“I am still investigating, but there is a lot of tension out here. The military seems to be hiding something. Our traditional chiefs must come together to produce a joint statement that will soothe the minds of our people. The people are angry, and they want the military to pay for its crime. Chief Oben, the Paramount Chief of Mamfe, has been seen this morning and he is clearly disappointed with the situation. He was a chief medical officer of this hospital before retiring and he did a great job renovating the hospital. The people are looking up to him for a fund-raising event that can result in the mobilization of massive resources to rebuild the hospital,” he underscored.

Meanwhile, sources in Yaoundé have indicated that the government is aware that there are many military officials who want the struggle to continue because they are making huge gains from the people’s suffering. The source, which spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the government is currently watching some army officials who are being suspected of stoking the fires in Southern Cameroons.

“The government is aware of the malicious intentions of some of its military officials who want the crisis to continue because the situation is helping them to live like maggots in bacons in Yaoundé. The government has not yet had enough probable cause to arrest them, but undercover agents are working very hard to uncover the secret plots put in place by these ignoble characters who are causing the country to continue to bleed. It is a matter of time. They will be unmasked,” the source said. 

Meanwhile the Cameroon Concord News Group is calling on Manyu sons and daughters to organize fundraisers so that the hospital can be rebuilt in a very short period of time. While it is the government’s responsibility, the Board of Directors of the Cameroon Concord News Group holds that if the people of Manyu Division can come with lots of money, the government will be obliged to cave in and avoid the long procurement procedures that may delay things. 

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A spike in cholera in Cameroon has killed 140 people since October last year, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute said on Wednesday.

“The updated epidemiological situation report shows a total of 7 287 notified cases, including 140 deaths, since October 2021,” he said in a statement.

“Three regions continue to record new patients,” he added, referring to the Littoral region, the West region, and the English-speaking Southwest region.

A vaccination campaign is to start in June, the government has said.

Cholera is an acute form of diarrhoea that is treatable with antibiotics and hydration but can kill within hours if left untreated.

Outbreaks occur periodically in Cameroon, a west African nation of more than 25 million inhabitants. The last epidemic occurred between January and August 2020, when 66 people died.

Cholera is caused by a germ that is typically transmitted by poor sanitation. People become infected when they swallow food or water carrying the bug.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said in early 2021 there were between 1.3 and four million cases of cholera per year around the world, leading to between 21 000 and 143 000 deaths.

Source: AFP

The Ambazonia Interim Government (IG) has sounded a note of caution to all Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora about the dire healthcare situation in Ground Zero, exacerbated by continued Francophone army military operations.

Vice President Dabney Yerima says urgent action is needed to contain the ongoing cholera, COVID-19 pandemic and measles outbreak in the Ambazonia homeland.

Briefing the Ambazonia war cabinet on his recent trip to Cambodia, Dabney Yerima cited acute malnutrition across Southern Cameroons as another health problem requiring swift action. Yerima pointed out that those in the Diaspora should help families and love ones back home in all what they can during this difficult times.

The exiled Ambazonia leader said the poor healthcare system in Southern Cameroons, which worsened after Biya and French Cameroun declared a complete military takeover of the entire homeland is rapidly getting worse.

“Southern Cameroons families are currently facing an unprecedented medicine shortage amid the war in Ukraine. I am appealing to all Southern Cameroonians in the West to send money back home to their respective families to help them cope with the sharp rise in drug prices,” Yerima said.

The people of Southern Cameroons will soon run out of medicine to treat patients if urgent action is not taken by the international community, Yerima stated his comments to the Ambazonia war cabinet.

“All the drug stocks in our homeland will run out of medicine soonest, if nothing is done,” Yerima warned

By Isong Asu

France, Belgium and Germany on Friday reported their first cases of monkeypox, joining several other European and North American nations in detecting the disease, endemic in parts of Africa.

Monkeypox was identified in a 29-year-old man in the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, who had not recently returned from a country where the virus is circulating, France’s health authorities said Friday.

Separately, the German armed forces’ microbiology institute said it has confirmed the virus in a patient who developed skin lesions — a symptom of the disease.

And in Belgium, microbiologist Emmanuel Andre confirmed in a tweet that the University of Leuven’s lab had confirmed a second of two cases in the country, in a man from the Flemish Brabant.

With the growing number of detected cases in several European countries, Germany’s health agency Robert Koch Institute has urged people returning from West Africa, and in particular gay men, to see their doctors quickly if they notice any chances on their skin.

The rare disease — which is not usually fatal — often manifests itself through fever, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion and a chickenpox-like rash on the hands and face.

The virus can be transmitted through contact with skin lesions and droplets of a contaminated person, as well as through shared items such as bedding and towels.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it was looking closely at the issue and in particular that some of the cases in the UK appeared to have been transmitted within the gay community.

Cases of monkeypox have also been detected in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden as well as in the United States and Canada, leading to fears that the disease — normally concentrated in Central and West Africa — may be spreading.

Monkeypox usually clears up after two to four weeks, according to the WHO.

Source: AFP

Spain’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a bill that grants paid medical leave for women who suffer from severe period pain, becoming the first European country to advance such legislation.

Menstrual leave is currently offered only in a small number of countries across the globe, among them South Korea and Indonesia.

But the proposed legislation must still be approved by the Spanish parliament, with a vote not expected for months.

It was not clear whether Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority coalition government, which has made women’s rights a priority, has enough support in the assembly to pass it.

The Spanish bill entitles workers experiencing period pain to as much time off as they need, with the state social security system — not employers — picking up the tab for the sick leave.

As with paid leave for other health reasons, a doctor must approve the temporary medical incapacity.

Equality Minister Irene Montero said the law will recognise a health problem that has been largely swept under the carpet until now.

“Periods will no longer be taboo,” she told a news conference after the cabinet approved the bill.

“We will be the first country in Europe to introduce a temporary sick leave that is fully financed by the state for painful and incapacitating periods,” she added.

“No more going to work with pain, no more taking pills before arriving at work and having to hide the fact we’re in pain that makes us unable to work.”

Montero belongs to the far-left Podemos party, Sanchez’s junior coalition partner which has been the driving force behind the law.

‘Have to be careful’

About a third of women who menstruate suffer from severe pain, according to the Spanish Gynaecology and Obstetrics Society.

Italy in 2016 proposed a bill that would have granted three paid days off to women suffering menstrual pain who obtained medical certificates.

But the draft bill did not progress before the parliamentary term expired in 2018.

Spain’s proposal has divided politicians and even unions, with some saying it could stigmatise women in the workplace and favour the recruitment of men.

“You have to be careful with this type of decision,” said Cristina Antonanzas, deputy secretary general of one of Spain’s largest trade unions, the UGT, warning it could impact “women’s access to the labour market”.

But Spain’s other major trade union, the CCOO, said the proposed measure was “justified” if period pain prevents a woman from working, and called it a major “legislative advance”.

Reproductive health reform

The Spanish legislation is part of a much wider reproductive health reform which will include changes to the country’s abortion laws.

It will end the requirement for minors of 16 and 17 to obtain parental consent before terminating a pregnancy and include measures to boost access to abortion at public hospitals.

The draft bill also calls for the free distribution of contraceptives and menstrual hygiene products in high schools, and strengthens sex education.

“We are advancing feminism. Women should be able to decide freely about their lives,” tweeted Sanchez.

Since he came to power in 2018, women have taken up most cabinet posts for the first time in Spain’s history, taking up top portfolios such as defence, economy and finance.

Spain decriminalised abortion in 1985 in cases of rape, if a foetus is malformed or if a birth poses a serious physical or psychological risk to the mother.

The scope of the law was broadened in 2010 to allow abortion on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, but access to the procedure is complicated by the fact that many doctors in public hospitals refuse to perform abortions.

Source: AFP

Cameroonian virologist and director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (AfricaCDC), Dr. John Nkengasong, has been confirmed by the US Senate as the country’s Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator of the United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS Globally.

The US Department of State confirmed the development in a statement yesterday.

The statement says Nkengasong will “lead, manage, and oversee the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the US government’s multilateral engagements with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) through the US State Department’s Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy.” 

“In this role, Ambassador Nkengasong will continue to work across the US government, together with partner governments, multilateral organizations, civil society, and other partners to accelerate progress on the global HIV/AIDS response, sustain epidemic impact, and contribute to broader global health diplomacy and security for the future,” the statement adds.

Commenting on his appointment, Nkengasong tweeted, “So humbled to have been confirmed by US Senate to lead PEPFAR – a hugely impactful program in saving million of lives with strong bipartisan support in 20 years! Thank you @POTUS and Secretary @ABlinken for the opportunity to serve. HIV/AIDS remains a serious threat globally!”

Source: Newsmakerslive

More than a million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have now received at least one dose of the first anti-malaria vaccine, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

The “breakthrough” RTS,S vaccine was pioneered in Malawi in April 2019 and found to be safe and to substantially reduce severe cases of the disease, the WHO said in a statement ahead of World Malaria Day on April 25.

The WHO recommended the widespread deployment of the vaccine for children living in sub-Saharan Africa and areas at risk in October 2021, and said its pilot scheme could save the lives of between 40,000 and 80,000 children in Africa each year.

“This vaccine is not just a scientific breakthrough, it’s life-changing for families across Africa,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.

“It demonstrates the power of science and innovation for health. Even so, there is an urgent need to develop more and better tools to save lives and drive progress towards a malaria-free world.”

More than $155 million (143 million euros) have been secured by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for the delivery of the vaccines, the statement added.

RTS,S, manufactured by British pharmaceutical giant GSK, acts against plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly mosquito-borne parasite around the world and the most prevalent in Africa.

It is a first-generation vaccine and could be complemented by others with similar or higher efficacy in the future, the WHO said.

The organisation welcomed progress in the development of other treatments, too, but said more funding was needed in the fight against malaria — an average of $851 million (785 million euros) per year over the period 2021-2030.

Malaria is an old disease and has been reported since antiquity. It results in fever, headaches and muscle pain before cycles of chills, fever and sweating. It can be fatal if it is not treated in time.

Around 90 percent of the world’s malaria cases are recorded in Africa, where 260,000 children die from the disease each year.

Source: AFP