Life

5, December 2016

Cameroon government gives priority to prevention in the fight against HIV/Aids ⁰

The Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda has stated Government’s determination to have two hundred thousand HIV patients get access to free treatment by the end of 2016.Public Health boss made this declaration this Thursday 1st December 2016 in Yaoundé during the commemoration of the 29th edition of the World AIDS Day organized under the theme “Hands up for HIV prevention”. Minister Andre Mama Fouda used the occasion to encourage AIDS patients to strictly follow-up treatment so as to avoid the propagation of the virus.

Commemorative activities in Yaoundé like in other towns of the country were marked by sensitization campaigns, free screening, health talks and distribution of condoms among other activities. Noteworthy is the fact that the disease with still no cure has accounted for the death of many Cameroonians. A number of campaigns spearheaded by the Ministry of Public Health and other stakeholders are being carried out to create awareness of the disease. Also, government now provides free anti-retroviral drugs for patients living with the virus.

Cameroon’s First Lady, Chantal Biya has also been very instrumental in the fight against the disease. According to statistics, about 90% of new infection is as a result of unprotected sexual relations. About 6 % is attributed to mother-to-child transmission, and approximately 4 % as a result of blood transfusion. In Cameroon, the prevalence rate has dropped from is an estimated 4.3% to 3.9.

CRTV

28, November 2016

Academic activities paralyzed as Buea University students begin strike ⁰

Buea University students have started a massive strike action today morning within the campus of the university. The students inter alia have demanded that all French-speaking lecturers who teach only in French be told to leave the university. To contain the peaceful demonstration, police forces have been deployed on campus and shots were reportedly fired to disperse the crowd. The police have also strengthened their anti-riot system around the student residential area in Molyko.

The Francophone governor of the South West region, Okalia Bilai said in a press release that an unidentified group was behind the strike to intimidate parents and students from going about their normal educational activity.

Some SDF parliamentarians decided to march peacefully in Buea to show their solidarity with the Anglophone community in Cameroon. Lawyers and teachers had staged similar demos which were repressed by the police and resulted in the demand for federalism. Biya dispatched his Prime Minister to negotiate a peaceful settlement. But the Yang Philemon mission ended in fiasco. The lawyers and teachers have extended their unlimited strike action.

By Rita Akana

16, November 2016

CPDM miracle: CNPS signs medical evacuation convention for its staffs, patients to be treated in Tunisia ⁰

The National Social Insurance Fund known in French as the Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance Sociale (CNPS) has signed a convention for medical evacuations of its staffs and other patients to Tunisia, while the institution owns and runs many hospitals in the country.

On October 26, 2016, CNPS signed an agreement with Tunisia’s Mediacal Services (TMS) for medical evacuations. The National Social Insurance Fund was represented during the signing ceremony by Alain Noël Mekulu Mvondo, the general manager of the fund and Slim Maraoui who stood for the TMS.

According to the agreement, patients proposed by CNPS will now be evacuated to Tunisia and no longer in France. The management of CNPS justified the decision to sign the agreement saying it was pushed by the desire to reduce the costs of evacuations to France and Tunisia’s modern technical platforms and the very good quality of its medical practitioners.

Cameroon Concord News health correspondent, who contributed to this report, opined that the convention has betrayed the lack of confidence by CNPS with regard to its own hospitals. The main CNPS hospital in Yaoundé created in 1978 is still struggling to meet international standards. CNPS had been evacuating patients to France and Great Britain. Mekulu Mvondo now thinks Tunisia and Europe have identical technical plates.

By Sonne Peter

16, November 2016

Cameroonian singer, Bate Nico will be on stage in London come December ⁰

The Cameroonian singer, Bate Nico will be on stage in London on the 10^th of December 2016. Nico, who is said to have been consistently consistent with his Manyu folklore fascination, has revealed that the London trip will set the stage for his breakthrough. The Semi Bantu artist has reportedly sold thousands of copies and has become the best-selling artist from the South West region of Cameroon after the likes of the late Bebe Manga.

The songs he writes are not strictly songs for Cameroon but songs for the whole world that also covers the entire Cross River State of Nigeria. Bate Nico’s well-received appearance at the MECA-USA conventions and in Ireland fulfilled one of his biggest dreams and earned him a slot on the Cameroon’s top music chart. Speaking to journalists recently in Buea, Bate Nico observed that “Sometimes people would say my music is from Manyu Division but that is actually not true,” Bate Nico said. “It has only been popularized in Manyu but it is not Manyu as such. It is everywhere, but its roots are in Manyu.”

The much anticipated arrival of Bate Nico in London, UK is warming up to be the highlight of the Manyu and Cameroonian community in Great Britain in 2016. On the 10th of December it’s all happening in London. Hundreds of Manyu sons and daughters in continental Europe and in the British Isles will be congregating to witness their music idol live on stage. The venue has been booked and hotel rooms are being reserved for an evening of a lifetime. As one of the best musicians to come out of Manyu Division in the South West Region of Cameroon, it’s a mystery to many that Bate Nico after more than ten years of touring the world hasn’t performed in the United Kingdom.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

14, November 2016

Cameroon army reopens schools in the Far North, soldiers serving as teachers ¹

The weakening of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram by the Cameroonian military made it possible to reopen some of the schools in the Far North Region for the 2016/2017 academic year. A sister publication, Cameroun-info.net has reported that many teachers who fled the war zone have refused to return.

In order to ensure the education of the abandoned pupils, some soldiers have decided to take the chalk. The army recently reopened the Madina Public School (10 km from Fotokol) which currently has 150 pupils and Cameroonian men and women in uniform are now serving as teachers.

It is good news in the avalanche of sadness that for three years has rocked the Far North Region. Last year, the departments in charge of national, primary and secondary education reported that more than five hundred teachers had dropped out of classrooms to escape the war.

By Sama Ernest

12, November 2016

Lagos 3rd All Africa Music Award: Stanley Enow wins again ⁰

Stanley Enow has added an additional feather on his red cap by winning the 3^rd All Africa Music Award (AFRIMA) as best rapper in a ceremony that held in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday November 7^th 2016. One year after winning the prize for best male artist in Central Africa, Stanley Enow won the AFRIMA award beating Daphne, Franko, Locko and Wax Dey.

The renowned Cameroonian artist is loved because of his African American tubes. He won the Afrima Dallas award in 2014 and has many other trophies on the national level. His famous tube “Hein Pere”, launched his career a few years ago.

Sama Ernest

11, November 2016

The declining state of public hygiene under the CPDM regime ⁰

The Minister for Youths and Civic Education was in Kribi recently to launch a national initiative which seeks to generalize good civic practices in the country. Many see it as a last-ditch effort to improve on the declining state of public hygiene, especially as the Africa Nations Cup competition draws nearer and nearer. Many have criticized the state of public hygiene in the country and the authorities were beginning to fear that we were going to be caught pants down when the numerous visitors coming into the country for the AFCON if they met the situation uncorrected. Some have rightly called it a national disease. On the major streets of Yaoundé, it is not unusual to find passengers throwing out banana peelings or used Kleenex paper from car windows and quite often this is even done by those in vehicles no one would ever have suspected simply by the quality of their occupants!

Once upon a time, the cities of Yaoundé and Douala had some of the best public telephone booths; but all were gone within months of their installation because hoodlums broke them up and shattered them in the hope of extracting the coins put in to obtain communication lines. Across the country, entire communities have been cut off from electricity by thieves in search of such lines to sell out for use in the manufacture of other lucrative uses. Many Mayors and other authorities have been making appeals for better manners as the countdown for the beginning of AFCON comes closer. The appeals were prompted by the need to address some disturbing actions around newly constructed structures in the country where citizens have not given them the care they require. Within these structures and where toilets and other facilities exist, people would rather urinate just about anywhere.

One must however blame the public authorities for the rise in these condemnable acts because all too often essential services such as toilets and other hospitality services are not provided for when public buildings are conceived. It is possible to go for several kilometers in our major cities with seeing a refuse disposal basket or a public toilet. In such a situation, where does one expect even the most willing person faced with the need to urinate do? Or where does one throw a used piece of Kleenex? It takes both a campaign such as the one being organized by the public authorities but, above all, by the provision of facilities to expect a radical turnaround in the poor habits experienced today. It will take only that to expect to instill a culture of public hygiene and the need to respect common-use facilities in the minds of Cameroonian citizens.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune

1, November 2016

Cancer could kill 60 percent more women by 2030 ⁰

Nearly 60 percent more women may fall victim to various types of cancer by 2030, a report says, indicating a rocketing increase in a matter of less than two decades. The Global Burden of Cancer in Women presented on Tuesday at the World Cancer Congress in Paris showed that a shocking figure of 5.5 million women would be killed from cancer each year by 2030, much higher than 3.5 million deaths from 6.7 million cancer cases recorded in 2012.

“These numbers are expected to increase to 9.9 million cases and 5.5 million deaths among females annually by 2030 as a result of the growth and ageing of the population,” said the report, warning that the highest toll will be among women in poor and middle-income countries who could suffer from largely preventable cancers.

The report, compiled by the American Cancer Society and pharmaceutical company Merck, highlighted the large geographic inequality in availability of resources and preventive measures and treatment to combat cancer, saying a much smaller proportion of cancer cases are diagnosed and treated in poorer countries.

It said most cancer cases are still reported in high-income countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia as they have better access to screening and detection. However, a much bigger group dies in poorer countries such as Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea.

It also said better basic healthcare being provided in developing countries, which has led to a longer lifespan for people, has exposed them to a growing burden of cancer. It said women in these societies are involved in more physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, obesity, and reproductive factors such as postponing motherhood, meaning that rapid economic transition is increasing the risk of cancer for these countries.

The report said cervical cancer is still the most prevalent in poor countries while the developed ones have more rates of colorectal cancer. It said breast and lung cancers are common in both rich and poor nations. However, it added that all the four types are mostly preventable or can be detected early, when treatment is more successful. Cancer is the second highest cause of death after cardiovascular disease. Estimates show that it is already killing one in seven women around the world.

Presstv

1, November 2016

Yaounde: 255 Health practitioners graduate from the Faculty of Medicines ⁰

Some 255 health professionals have graduated from the Faculty of Medicines and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1. The Minister of Higher Education Jacque Fame Ndongo chaired the graduation ceremony during which the students received their end of course certificates on the 31^st of October 2016.

Addressing the laureates, the Minister of Higher Education outlined what it takes to be a good health practitioner who he described as life savers. At the end of the oath taking exercise, the graduates were officially handed over to the Minister of Public Health- ending seven years of training that was punctuated with field work.

The 255 graduates are specialized in general medicine, pharmacy and dentistry. During the ceremony, some outstanding students in each of the fields received awards.

CRTV

28, October 2016

Camrail agrees to pay 1.5 million FCFA to families of victims of the Eseka train accident ⁰

The Cameroon Railway Company and its insurer have agreed to provide assistance to the families of victims of the Eseka train tragedy. Under the agreement, Camrail and its insurance company will contribute up to 1.5million FCFA for each victim family. The money will be used finance funeral arrangements. The beneficiaries must obtain the necessary documents including the death certificate and national identity card.

As tension continues to mount in the country ever since the train crash occurred, senior administrators of Camrail have been shuttling between hospital units in Douala and Yaoundé visiting the wounded. 120 injured are still in hospitals in Douala, Yaounde and Edea.

By Fru James