Health

The World Bank has just offered Cameroon the sum of 63.19 billion CFA francs in grants for the fight against HIV / AIDS and tuberculosis. Cameroon Concord understands this money will fund the prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child, new infections, care for those infected, TB and HIV co-infection, malaria and input monitoring and evaluation. 

According to Dr. Leopold Zekeng, UN AIDS Deputy Director for West and Central Africa, there are over 600 000 adults and children living with HIV AIDS, 48 000 new infections, 8,000 babies born infected each year, and a little over 30 000 deaths . Cameroon is 2nd on the HIV infection rating in West and Central Africa after Nigeria. Dr Leopold Zekeng say, "Many efforts have been made in 2005. Today it is just over 165 000. So there are about 600 000 who need treatment. Between those who need treatment and those who do not yet need, there is a gap. And that gap is not insurmountable”.

The controversial Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda, representing the Government of Cameroon, has welcomed the new funding saying "Cameroon is pleased to celebrate today the confidence granted by an international institution such as the World Bank- a body whose major donors are the United States, France, Germany, Italy ... and that confidence translated today by a non-refundable amount of sixty billion CFA francs”.

Details

Sama Ernest

23.Mar.2016

Hits: 2582

Write comment (0 Comments)

A flare-up of Ebola epidemic in Guinea has killed at least five people since December last year when the West African country was declared free of Ebola virus transmission. This came after a center that coordinates Guinea's fight against the virus confirmed two more deaths registered in recent days. "Since the re-emergence of the disease, we have recorded five deaths, three probable and two confirmed," Fode Tass Sylla, spokesman for the government's Ebola response unit, said in the capital, Conakry, on Tuesday. The world's worst recorded Ebola epidemic started in Guinea and killed about 2,500 people there by December last year.

Meanwhile, the new outbreak in Guinea has prompted fear in neighboring Liberia, which has lost more than 4,000 people to the deadly virus. Liberian Information Minister Eugene Nagbe said on Tuesday that Monrovia had closed a portion of Liberia's northern border with Guinea and planned to expand the cordon amid a resurgence of the virus. The tropical hemorrhagic virus emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013, infecting nearly 29,000 people. The disease later spread into neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Official data show the outbreak killed at least 11,315 people, but the actual toll is thought to be much higher as many deaths have purportedly not been reported. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) was harshly criticized for its slow response to the outbreak as local healthcare systems were not equipped enough to handle it. The deadly virus causes severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea. The epidemic in many cases shuts down organs and leads to unstoppable internal bleeding. Close contact with the sweat, vomit, blood or other bodily fluids of a patient, or the recently deceased could cause the contagious disease to spread. A small number of Ebola cases were also recorded in Mali, Senegal and Nigeria.

Details

Presstv

22.Mar.2016

Hits: 2770

Write comment (0 Comments)

People in a number of African countries, including Cameroon,Nigeria,Burundi, Benin, Rwanda, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Togo, are the least happy people in the world, according to the World Happiness Report 2016. 

Jon Clifton, managing partner with the U.S.-based global research company Gallup, said the report took into account countries' per capita gross domestic product, life expectancy, corruption, social support and freedom to make life choices as indicators of happiness.

“The report actually identifies that there are six things that contribute. The single biggest is actually GDP per capita or income.  The other five are trust, life expectancy, social support, freedom, and generosity,” he said.

Ebola crisis

Clifton said the deadly Ebola in West Africa contributed to Liberia’s poor standing in the rankings because a lot of well-being within a country can be determined by recent events.

“When we asked something about whether or not they experienced a lot sadness or anger, physical pain, Liberia is among the top 10 in the world. So, a lot of it can be event-driven by things like Ebola they experience because our interviews were actually conducted May of last year,” Clifton said.

He said one of the big strengths of Africa is its social support, which was measured by asking respondents if they were in trouble, do they have relatives or friends you count on to help you whenever you need them or not. 

“What we found is that in 36 countries where we conducted this survey last year, in 33 of them, over a majority of people said yes to that. So there’s a huge strength in Africa when it comes social support,” Clifton said

Corruption

But Clifton said corruption in government continues to be a hindrance for Africa’s progress. 

"For example, we asked people all through Africa: 'is corruption widespread throughout the government in this country or not?' We were able to ask that in 34 different countries, and in 30 of those countries 50 percent or more people said they believe corruption was widespread through the government,” he said.

Clifton described Rwanda as an “outlier” because despite the fact that Rwanda has been referred to as the Singapore of Africa, the country is not doing that well when it comes to how people see their lives.

“When it comes to how people see their lives, they are not doing that well, particularly when compared to their GDP per capita. So Rwanda is a bit of an anomaly that I think is worth further explanation because people see their lives worse than they should quite frankly,” Clifton said.

Denmark ranks happiest

The World Happiness Report 2016 said Denmark is the happiest country in the world, followed closely by Switzerland. 

Other countries among the top 10 happiest countries are Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.

The report comes ahead of this year’s U.N. World Happiness Day, March 20, and Clifton said there’s a lot of lessons world leaders can draw from the report, including the new data on how people say their lives are going.

“I think before we used to use indicators like GDP per capita, for example to understand or to tell us whether or not the society is doing well or not. The challenge with that is that you can increase GDP per capita by doing certain economic activities, but it necessarily means that somebody’s life is getting better. These indicators by simply asking the experts themselves who are the people of these countries to tell us how their lives are going could be one of the best, if not the best indicator on whether a society is functioning or not,” he said. 

(VOA)

Details

Elangwe Pauline

18.Mar.2016

Hits: 3033

Write comment (0 Comments)

Hon. Peter William Mandio,CPDM MP from the Inoubou Mbam constituency has said that André Mama Fouda, Minister of Public Health should resign following the numerous scandals that has rocked his department recently. The parliamentarian from the ruling party observed that the nation can no longer accept the rampant medical negligence of medical practitioners in the country. 

In an open letter addressed to the presidency of the republic, Hon. Mandio accused the Minister of Public Health of being "complicit with all this drama because he appoints incompetent and inhuman personnel and because he refuses to denounce and punish these criminals, these trader rugs in laboratories, these death merchants."

Hon. Peter Mandio noted that Minister André Mama Fouda should quit. He demanded the dismissals of Messrs DISSONGO Jean II, Director of the Laquintinie hospital in Douala, Mr. KOKI Ndombo Paul, Director of the Chantal Biya Foundation and Mr. BELLE PRISO Director of the Douala General hospital including the director of the Bonassama hospital.

Details

Ebong Peter and Sama Ernest

15.Mar.2016

Hits: 2853

Write comment (0 Comments)

An American company’s costly mistakes hampered international efforts to battle the Ebola outbreak that swept across West Africa in 2014, a new investigation has found. The Associated Press investigation, published on Monday, found that employees with Metabiota Inc., a San Francisco-based company, engaged in feuds with other aid workers and contributed to misdiagnosed Ebola cases. The company, which bills itself as a pioneer in tracking emerging epidemics, also misread the virus’ trajectory and put a large group of people exposed to the deadly disease. Metabiota was first contracted by the Sierra Leone government and the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014, while the virus was circulating in neighboring Guinea. 

However, staff interviews and leaked emails show that the company made the already chaotic situation even worse, to a point where WHO outbreak expert Dr. Eric Bertherat wrote to his colleagues on July 17, 2014, "this is a situation that WHO can no longer endorse.” In his email, Bertherat relayed reports of “total confusion” at the Sierra Leone government lab that Metabiota and Tulane University shared, adding there was "no tracking of the samples" and "absolutely no control on what is being done." The expert accused the American company of providing clumsily done reports that were particularly dangerous amid suspicion that international workers were deliberately spreading the virus. In another instance, Gary Kobinger, head of special pathogens at the Public Health Agency of Canada, double-checked some of Metabiota’s work and found as many as five people wrongly diagnosed with Ebola. The mistakes stirred concerns that were relayed all the way up to WHO’s Director General, Dr. Margaret Chan.

Meanwhile, Metabiota chief executive officer and founder Nathan Wolfe dismissed the allegations altogether, saying no evidence suggested his company was to blame for the lab blunders. He said the wrong predictions about the epidemic did not reflect the company’s position as they were made by employees who were on loan to the Sierra Leone government. The case mirrored a wider mismanagement that crippled the worldwide response to Ebola, which has taken more than 11,000 lives. The WHO refused to sound the alarm over Ebola for two months and failed to put together a decisive response even after the alert was issued.

Details

Presstv

07.Mar.2016

Hits: 2990

Write comment (0 Comments)

No human casualties were reported in the fire accident that ravaged the Pasteur Pavillion of the Yaounde Central Hospital on Monday 8th February 2016. The origin of the fire that broke out Monday afternoon has not yet been established but like what the CPDM crime syndicate often say, an electrical fault was believed to have sparked the wild flame that consumed all the documentation and other accessories in the office of the main doctor of the ward who at the time was performing a surgical operation. The material damage was enomous as the entire ward was completely destroyed. 

The National Fire Fighting Brigade however contained the ravenging flames from spreading to other parts of the hospital. Shortly after the flames were contained, the Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda accompanied by the Secretary of State for Health Alim Hayatou and the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bokam visited the scene to measure the extent of the damage. Minister Fouda gave standing instructions that the ward should be isolated and electricity supply suspended from the affected building. CPDM corrupt contractors are already queing as the Minister announced emmergency repair measures.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

10.Feb.2016

Hits: 4405

Write comment (0 Comments)