Health

Numerous HIV/AIDS campaigns over the years have raised awareness among young people. However, an increasing number of children are now victims of the disease that is known to be transmitted mostly through sexual intercourse. It is for this reason that the Cameroonian Association for Social Marketing, ACMS, which seeks to fight the pandemic in youth between 15 and 24 years, organised a free and voluntary HIV/AIDS screening in Lycée Joss, Douala. 

It was to enable students know their status and take action. The exercise, under the aegis of “Forum régional des jeunes de la Cemac en lutte contre le sida,” Prejes, saw the screening of hundreds of students less than 15 years old. Most of them who took the test for the first time had no fright in them since they were counselled before screening.

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Ngwa Bertrand

17.Oct.2015

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Scientists might have accidentally made a huge step forward in the search for a cure for cancer — discovering unexpectedly that a malaria protein could be an effective weapon against the disease. Danish researchers were hunting for a way of protecting pregnant women from malaria, which can cause huge problems because it attacks the placenta. But they found at the same time that armed malaria proteins can kill cancer — an approach which could be a step towards curing the disease. The malaria vaccine can be used to bury into cancer cells and release a toxin, killing them off. It does the same to placentas, and it can’t distinguish between the two.

The scientists have found that in both cases the malria protein attaches itself to the same carbohydrate. It is the similarities between those two things that the cure could exploit. The carbohydrate ensures that the placenta grows quickly. But the team behind the new findings have detailed how it serves the same function in tumours — and the malaria parasite attaches itself to the cancerous cells in the same way, meaning that it can kill them off. Scientists said that they had been searching for a long time for a way to exploit the similarities between the placenta and the tumour. "For decades, scientists have been searching for similarities between the growth of a placenta and a tumor,” said Ali Salanti from University of Copenhagen. “The placenta is an organ, which within a few months grows from only few cells into an organ weighing approx. two pounds, and it provides the embryo with oxygen and nourishment in a relatively foreign environment. In a manner of speaking, tumors do much the same, they grow aggressively in a relatively foreign environment.” 

The process has already been tested in cells and on mice with cancer, with the findings described in a new article for the journal Cancer Cell. Scientists hope that they can begin testing the discovery on humans in the next four years. The biggest questions are whether it'll work in the human body, and if the human body can tolerate the doses needed without developing side effects,” said Salanti. “But we're optimistic because the protein appears to only attach itself to a carbohydrate that is only found in the placenta and in cancer tumors in humans.” In the tests on mice, the animals were implanted with three different types of human cancers. It reduced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma tumours to about a quarter of their size, got rid of protstate cancer entirely in two of six mice and kept alive five out of six mice that had metastatic bone cancer compared to a control group all of which died. "We have separated the malaria protein, which attaches itself to the carbohydrate and then added a toxin," said Mads Daugaard, a cancer researcher at Canada's University of British Columbia and one of the scientists that worked on the research. "By conducting tests on mice, we have been able to show that the combination of protein and toxin kill the cancer cells."

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Ngwa Bertrand

15.Oct.2015

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Pauline Cafferkey, the nurse being treated for Ebola, has "deteriorated" and is "critically ill", says the Royal Free Hospital. A military plane flew her from Glasgow to London on Friday after an "unusual late complication" caused her to fall ill again. It was thought she had recovered from the virus. "We are sad to announce that Pauline Cafferkey's condition has deteriorated and she is now critically ill," said a statement. "She is being treated for Ebola in the high level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital." Ms Cafferkey contracted the disease after treating patients in Sierra Leone at the height of the outbreak, which has killed more than 11,000 people. She was first treated at the Royal Free Hospital in December and discharged in January. 

Traces of the deadly virus can remain in parts of the body despite the patients having apparently recovered. Doctors "missed a big opportunity" to notice Ms Cafferkey had become unwell again, her family have claimed. Her sister, Toni Cafferkey, called it "absolutely diabolical" that a GP in Glasgow had sent her home after she went to an after-hours clinic. The 39-year-old from South Lanarkshire won a Pride of Britain award last month and met the Prime Minister's wife Samantha Cameron at Downing Street.

Twenty-five people recently treated by the nurse have been getting an experimental vaccination, having had close contact with her bodily fluids. In total, 58 people are being monitored. Last week the three countries at the centre of the Ebola epidemic recorded their first week with no new cases since March 2014. A Save The Children report said Ms Cafferkey was probably infected because she had used a visor to protect her face after struggling to get her goggles to fit.

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Ngwa Bertrand

14.Oct.2015

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The Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda has chaired a meeting to launch a project to control and eliminate the five recurrent Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Cameroon. The project dubbed “Countdown” is a UK-funded implementation research programme which is operational in three other African countries – Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria. Minister Andre Mama Fouda expressed appreciation to the Ministry’s partners for designing the project.

The Minister stated that Cameroon has registered progress in the fight against NTDs but maintained much work still has to be done. The Country Manager of Countdown, Professor Louis-Albert Tchuem-Tchuente revealed that new methods are being applied to intensify the fight. Some of these methods included the treatment of infected pre-school age children and adults, sensitisation on improved hygiene and disinfecting of risk zones. 

The Programme Director, Russell Stothard for his part assured the Cameroon government that his team of medical parasitologists are determine to control the spread of NTDs and eliminate them where possible. Neglected Tropical Diseases are a varied group of infectious diseases that prevail in tropical and subtropical regions. They are responsible for a huge percentage of ill health and physical disabilities worldwide. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified 17 of such diseases worldwide with 10 predominant in Africa and Cameroon.

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Ngwa Bertrand

13.Oct.2015

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Higher Education boss, Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo has handed to university heads, the harmonized teaching programme in the fields of medicine, pharmacists and dental surgery in Yaounde. Steps are being taken by the Ministry of Higher Education to improve the quality of medical experts trained in the public and private sectors in the country. The Minister of Higher Education, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, yesterday, October 8, 2015 in Yaounde handed to heads of State and private institutions of medical training the harmonized curriculum in the fields of general medicine, pharmacist and dental surgery. This was during a meeting of the National Commission for the Training of Medical Personnel in Cameroon. 

The Minister said the harmonized programme is aimed at ending cacophony in the training of medical personnel as well as creating maximum characteristics which will raise the standard of medical training in Cameroon to meet international norms. While chairing the commission, the Minister of Higher Education, who is also its president stressed the need for different faculties to develop and valorise African medicine and pharmaceutical products which will bring out the genius amongst Africans. Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo said as of now, there is no visibility in the sector and he wants that each State university reinforces or creates the department of African medicine with a team of its choice. Besides creating such a department, the Minister of Higher Education told experts to focus on research based on plants in the country so as to identify the curative and preventive aspects of the medicine as well as its dosage and side effects. Experts are also required to carry out research on the presentation of traditional medicines which could be in tablet, gel or ampoule form.

So far, Prof. Fame Ndongo said teaching and research procedures taking place in the higher education sector falls within national and international norms. But the loophole according to Fame Ndongo is that graduates from the higher education sector are not able to contribute to the development of the country since training does not adapt to the specificities of the society. The heads of the different commission charged with coming up with the harmonised programme said they took into consideration the realities of the country such as local epidemics and other health issues common in the African continent.

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Ngwa Bertrand

09.Oct.2015

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Cameroon is ending a polio vaccination campaign against a backdrop of growing resistance, even though officials say 7 percent of Cameroon's children are still at risk of contracting the crippling disease.  Forty-three-year-old Clarisse Tomta has refused to allow vaccination agents to inoculate two of her children – both under 5 years of age. She described the anti-polio campaign as unnecessary.

Tomta said it was becoming suspicious when Cameroon organized so many vaccination campaigns against polio knowing fully well that many mothers were educated enough and master their vaccination calendars.  She said many more Cameroonians died of poverty and should be given more consideration. Dr. Noulna Desire of Cameroon's expanded vaccination program said despite the resistance, which he said was a result of misinformation, fear and suspicion, they would not stop until they vaccinated the 5 million children age 5 and younger they were targeting.

Desire said in spite of the multitude of inoculation campaigns they have organized, more than 7 percent of Cameroonian children were not vaccinated, more than the 5 percent limit the World Health Organization recommends. He said all children who have not been vaccinated are at risk for contracting polio. In 2014, the WHO listed Cameroon among the 10 countries with active wild poliovirus, and ranked it among the top four countries posing the greatest threat of exporting the crippling virus to other countries. In March of 2015 Cameroon attained the status of a "non-polio exporting country" after it hit the six-month mark without a new case. But the WHO said the central African state is still considered a high-risk nation with pockets of resistance. 

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Sep.2015

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