Health

Cameroon’s pioneer Mental Health Day began holding in Yaounde on December 15, 2015, with stakeholders crying out against the neglect of their profession. Speaking at the start of the three-day event holding at Merina Hotel in the capital city’s Central Business District, Alim Hayatou, the Secretary of State in charge of Epidemics and Pandemics in the Ministry of Public Health, promised to restructure and give the profession more fillip. He admitted that mental health practice has for long “been an orphan of the health care system.” He added that a situation whereby Cameroon’s two largest cities – Yaounde and Douala – have only three or four mental health doctors each was unacceptable.

Alim Hayatou blamed society for often associating mental health with mental illness, saying this was not true. He attributed the growing number of patients with mental challenges to the tendency by families to quickly abandon their relatives after failing to offer them care. Earlier, Dr Félicien Ntone, a psychiatrist, Sub-Director of Mental Health in the Ministry of Public Health and Deputy General Manager of the Yaounde University Teaching Hospital, presented a lamentable picture of mental health practice in Cameroon. He appealed to all departments in the Ministry of Public Health to henceforth include mental health components in their activities. According to him, the absence of a proper mental health policy cannot guarantee an effective health care system.

Dr Félicien Ntone decried the neglect of the mental health profession over the years in terms of training, organisation, funding and integration into the public health system, reminding the audience that Cameroon was now at war. The resultant violence (suicide bombings) and prolonged economic crisis only worsen an already bad situation as the response has been weak, he said. “Without good mental health, Cameroon can’t develop nor hope to become an emergent nation by 2035,” Dr Ntone warned. He vowed to continue his advocacy until mental health is given its rightful place in Cameroon’s health care system. With the theme, “The Problem Of Mental Health In Cameroon: Situation And Prospects,” the opening of three days of discussions was also attended by children with mental challenges. At the end, participants are expected to chart the way for mental health practice in Cameroon.

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Ngwa Bertrand

17.Dec.2015

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MONROVIA—

Liberia released its last two known Ebola cases from the hospital Thursday as it starts a new countdown to declaring itself free of the virus for a third time, health officials said.

Liberia had been the only country in West Africa with known cases. Neighbor Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free in November, while Guinea's last known case recovered two weeks ago.

"There are no cases in the ETUs [Ebola Treatment Units] in the entire Republic of Liberia," said Tolbert Nyenswah, head of Liberia's Ebola response, adding that Ebola safety procedures remained in place.

The two patients released from the Paynesville ETU are the father and younger brother of the presumed index case, a 15-year-old boy named Nathan Gbotoe from a suburb of the capital Monrovia who died from the disease last week.

However, new cases could emerge in Liberia since there are 165 contacts still under quarantine, of whom more than 30 are deemed high risk, health officials told Reuters.

The contacts under surveillance have completed 14 days of their obligatory 21-day monitoring — a period that corresponds with the typical incubation period of the virus, Nyenswah said.

"No need to cancel your plane ticket when you are planning to come to Liberia. Continue to come here; the place is safe," Nyenswah told reporters.

Liberian medical workers are still grappling to explain how Ebola re-emerged in Liberia more than two months after it was declared free of the virus by the World Health Organization.

Resurgent cases in Liberia, possibly transmitted sexually by survivors, has cast doubt on the current policy of labelling a country Ebola-free after 42 days

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Ngwa Bertrand

04.Dec.2015

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Medical personnel from the ten regions of Cameroon are meeting in Yaounde to device a national strategy to ensure the availability of essential medicines. The Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Health, Alim Hayatou presided at the opening of the two-day workshop. The working session is to device ways of improving on collaboration between the National Centre for the Supply of Essential Medicines (CENAME), the Regional Funds for Health Promotion (FRPS) and public health centres, the main actors in the supply of essential medicines.

CENAME is charged with supplying drugs at the national level to the FRPS who in turn supply them at the regional level to public hospitals and health centres. To overcome obstacles like the shortage in supply relative to demand, the Ministry of Public Health has brought together these actors. Recommendations made at the end of the session will serve in specifying the role of each actor towards a better supply of essential medicines in the country.

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Ngwa Bertrand

27.Nov.2015

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FOUR time African Footballer of the Year winner and former Cameroonian national team captain Samuel Eto’o  to visit Zimbabwe next week.

The Cameroonian striker won the African Footballer of the year award three times in row in 2003/4/5 and in 2010.

However, his visit has nothing to do with football.

The African giant will be visiting Zimbabwe  to speak to young people about HIV and STIs in the hope that his popularity will help spread the message on the dangers of the two diseases which are mainly sexually transmitted.

Eto’o will be a guest at this year’s International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (ICASA) running from the 29th of November to 4th December.

Confirming the coming of decorated striker, local Zimbabwe ICASA Communications manager, Tariro Makanga, said Eto’o is expected in the country next week and will address thousands of delegates on the 30th of November.

“Eto’o is a favourite of many soccer fans and non-soccer fans. He is passionate about young people.

“As such, we believe if he interacts with young people as they put their voices on HIV and STI issues in Africa it will be beneficial to them as they can in the process learn how he has made it this far,” said Makanga.

“He will be at the Community Village where even those who are not registered can have access to him.     

“The Cameroonian football legend is basically a role model to many young Africans and his career tells an integrity story on its own.”

Eto’o played for Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid; English Premier League’s Chelsea, and Inter-Milan in Italy, among some top clubs.

At one point he became the highest paid player in the world when he was playing for FC Anzhi Makhachkala of Russia.

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Nov.2015

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Prime Minister, Philémon Yang, commissioned on 17 November 2015 in the economic capital, the Douala gynaecology-obstetrics and paediatrics hospital. This ultra-modern hospital complex cost FCfa 15 billion, financed through an loan agreement signed in 2007 between Cameroon and the Republic of China, during a visit by the Cameroonian Head of State in China.

The building works launched in October 2009 were undertaken by the company China Shanxi Construction Engineering Group Corp. “This is a jewel of the cooperation in the health sector between our two countries. The gynaecology-obstetrics and paediatrics hospital of Douala is another technology feat granted by the Chinese government to the Cameroonian people after the one in Yaoundé”, the Chinese ambassador in Cameroon, Wei Wenhua, commented.

As a reminder, China, who is currently financing and building most large scale infrastructure in Cameroon, has become the top lender to the Cameroonian State. By end 2014, this emerging country officially claimed having a portfolio of FCfa 1,850 billion in projects in Cameroon.

This amount is equivalent to 67% of the FCfa 2,750 billion in direct foreign investments (DFE) received by Cameroon over the period covering 2000-2014, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade And Development (UNCTAD).

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Ngwa Bertrand

22.Nov.2015

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The Douala Gyneaco-Obstetrics and Pediatric Hospital has been inaugurated with a call on the medical staff to provide quality health care to patients. The call was made by Prime Minister Philemon Yang, who officiated at the inauguration of the 13 billion ultra-modern hospital. 

The hospital which is situated at Yassa in the outskirts of Douala, is a fruit of cooperation between Cameroon and China. The hospital is a modern infrastructure with the state of the art medical equipment. Patients particularly, women and children will thus find a suitable facility to satisfy their health needs.

The Douala gyneaco-Obstetrics and Paediatric Hospital is the 6th reference hospital to be constructed in Cameroon in recent times.

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Ngwa Bertrand

19.Nov.2015

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