Health

Nearly 8,000 HIV patients in eastern Ukraine are struggling with a serious lack of medicine as their medical supplies are estimated to run out within a month, a UN envoy warns. The patients are “caught in the political crossfire” between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia forces, because their required drugs are blocked at border checkpoints, UN Secretary General’s special envoy for AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Michel Kazatchkine said on Sunday. The Donbass region, comprised of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, in Ukraine’s east once housed 25 percent of the country’s HIV-positive population, but many of them have already fled due to the ongoing crisis, said Kazatchkine.

Most of the 8,000 who have remained need both antiretroviral treatments and opioids to keep their HIV infections under control. The drugs have already been purchased and the medical charity group Doctors Without Borders has vowed to deliver them and supervise treatment, Kazatchkine said. However, Kiev does not allow the drugs to be transported to eastern Ukraine, arguing that the medical supplies require armed convoys to be transported, he said. 

The UN envoy urged key nations involved in the Ukrainian crisis to intervene over the issue as soon as possible. “I am calling on the United States, Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia to do something” to help the patients, Kazatchkine said. Donbass has seen deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April 2014 to silence the pro-Russians there. The crisis in Ukraine has left 6,500 people dead and 16,000 more wounded, according to the UN.

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Jul.2015

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A new United Nations report on AIDS said the Millennium Development Goals of reducing HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have been met. According to U.N. statistics, since the year 2000, new HIV infections have fallen by 35 percent and AIDS-related deaths by 41 percent. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlined the good news to reporters in Addis Ababa on Tuesday. “Today, 15 million people are on life-saving HIV-treatment. We have proved beyond doubt that treatment can be scaled up no matter what the setting. Fifteen million people on HIV-treatment means billions of families are protected and billions of dollars are saved. And it means we are on our way to an AIDS-free generation,” he said.

Sub-Saharan Africa has always been the worst affected part of the world when it comes to AIDS. But progress is being made, with Namibia, Senegal and Ethiopia being examples of countries that have significantly reduced new HIV infections. The report said access to treatment has saved about 7.8 million lives worldwide. Treatment also means that an estimated 1.4 million children did not receive HIV from their mothers.

New treatment

Also, U.N. AIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé said that starting six to eight months from now, HIV-positive people will be able to stop taking their daily pills. “Soon we know that we will have one injection for every four months or six months, which is changing completely the way we deliver services to poor people,” he said. “They will not have to travel, they will not have to come, they will not have to stock those pills, and to have the risk to have those pills which are not necessarily working, creating resistance.”

The injection will reduce the cost of treatment for those affected. Despite these promising developments, more needs to be done. In 2014, there were still 2 million new HIV infections and more than 13 million children lost one or both parents to AIDS-related causes. Later this year, the U.N. Millennium Development Goals will be replaced with the Sustainable Development Goals. The new target for 2030 is to completely eradicate the AIDS epidemic and for everyone to have access to treatment.

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Ngwa Bertrand

15.Jul.2015

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Almost two months after Liberia was declared Ebola-free, the disease has cropped up again — this time in a rural town outside the capital city.

So far, there's only one new case, but health officials are rushing to stop its spread.

Liberia's deputy health minister, Tolbert Nyenswah, said Tuesday that a 17-year-old boy died of Ebola at his home in Nedowein, a village near the country's international airport.

"There is no need to panic. The corpse has been buried, and our contact tracing has started work," Nyenswah told Reuters. Health officials have already started quarantining homes near where the body was found.

But there are a few reasons why the case is worrisome.

First, it's not known where or how the teenager caught Ebola. "There is no known source of infection, and there's no information about him traveling to Guinea or SL [Sierra Leone]," the ministry of health told Science magazine in an email.

Second, health officials didn't know the teenager had Ebola until after he died. So he could have unwittingly spread the disease to his family and caretakers.

Finally, many international aid groups have left Liberia since cases plummeted to zero back in March. The case will test Liberia's ability to stop an outbreak largely on its own.

The World Health Organization declared the country Ebola-free May 9. But neighboring countries Guinea and Sierra Leone are still struggling to stop the virus. Last week, the two countries reported 20 cases total, the WHO said.

Since Ebola erupted in West Africa, there have been 27,443 reported cases, More than 11,000 people have died.

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Ngwa Bertrand

01.Jul.2015

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Hospital workers in Cameroon have gone on strike in protest at 'unbearable' working conditions. Their demands include state-of-the art medical equipment, more drugs to treat patients and action against corruption.

A toddler is weeping in her bed in the emergency ward at Yaounde University Hospital, but there are no medical personnel in sight.

The child's father Odiobo Alain told DW his daughter has been crying for hours, but none of the nurses have attended to her.

But Alain's troubles don't end there. His ailing 72-year-old grandmother is in the same hospital and no doctor has been to see her either.

The patients are being neglected, said Alain. "All the workers of the hospital, like nurses and some doctors, are spending time at their computers. They are refusing to treat patients, which should not happen especially if a patient is dying. The government should do something quickly," he said.

Cameroon's hospital staff say there are withholding their labor until their demands are met. Awono Essomba Luc heads Cameroon's National Union of Health Workers, which called the strike. He doesn't mince words over the dilapidated state of Cameroon's hospitals.

"Imagine a patient coming to hospital to get his health back and then finding himself in a stinking environment," he said.

Luc is not only complaining about poor hygiene, but about medical equipment broken beyond repair and the hospital management.

"It seems that instead of taking care of patients, the general manager rather takes care of money," he said.

On the premises of Yaounde University Hospital, the beat of drums can be heard in the background. This is deliberate and part of the hospital staff's protest. It tells all who enter the premises that something is seriously wrong with this hospital.

No pay for 12 months

Nurse Longue Michael joined the strike. He said "Cameroon is a country where you have to go on strike to get what you are owed, or deserve."

Longue also referred to the inability of the government to find a sufficient number of doctors who are prepared to work in remote areas of Cameroon. "Doctors escape the places that are too remote," he said. The nurses stayed there.

Another nurse who is on strike is Mballa Clement. She belongs to the Union of Health and Medical Personnel, which is backing the stoppage along with the National Union of Health Workers.

She says the working conditions at the hospital are unbearable. The government should start to take care of the workers and of equipment maintenance. She had one explanation for the equipment failure.

"I suppose if the machines are broken down every day, it is because they buy what they call 'second hand'." Clement also said that nothing had been working in the radiology department for months.

The healthcare workers want state-of-the-art equipment for their hospital, better access to drugs, and action taken against corruption.

They also claim that most of them haven't been paid for up to 12 months and say they would like the arrears to be paid off.

Cameroon's Minister of Health Andre Mama Fouda says the government is examining the concerns raised by the two health workers' unions, who drew up a list of 16 grievances.

"Most of the issues they raised are pertinent and we have to look for lasting solutions," he said

However, he warned there was no quick fix for most of their demands.

Source:DW

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Ngwa Bertrand

01.Jul.2015

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Cameroon’s government and the People’s Republic of China yesterday June 8, 2015 commemorated 40 years of mutually beneficial cooperation in the health sector. As authorities from both countries gathered at a significant place in their relationship; the Yaounde Gyneaco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital (HGOPY), which is one of the jewels in the Sino-Cameroon cooperation that was constructed, equipped by the People’s Republic of China and inaugurated on March 28, 2002, Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda and the  Vice President of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the Shanxi Province, Professor Wei Xiaochun on behalf of their governments, lauded the win-win cooperation that exists between both countries and promised to strengthen efforts for the wellbeing and better healthcare for the population.

The event was an ideal opportunity for Professor Wei Xiaochun to offer laboratory equipment to the Yaounde Gynaeco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital worth some FCFA 30 million. According to the Director General of HGOPY, Professor Angwafo III Fru, the gifts, in the form of reagents, will help the hospital carry out basic tests such as complete blood counts, biochemistry profile liver and kidney functioning as well as anaesthetic medications which will help when there is stock shortage in the national territory. To also mark 40 years of fruitful cooperation, André Mama Fouda and Wei Xiaochun signed a new project dubbed “Projet Lumière” (the light project) which is a community health project to treat people suffering from neglected tropical diseases such as cataract. According to the agreement, before the end of this year, people suffering from cataract will be freely treated either at the HGOPY or the Mbalmayo District Hospital in the Centre Region.

As Cameroon and the People’s Republic of China commemorate not only an exemplary but promising cooperation, the General Chief of the Medical Mission from China, Pu Lianmin noted that they are at the 17^th medical mission of Chinese health experts from China to Cameroon. While noting that the 17^th medical mission from China is a dynamic group which is particularly result orientated, Pu Lianmin said the 17^th mission just like the others will serve Cameroonians with all their heart, popularise Chinese medical method, all in a bid to improve healthcare given to Cameroonians.

Since 1975 when the first Chinese medical team arrived Cameroon, some 582 Chinese medical experts from the Shanxi Province have been received in different hospitals in the country. While at HGOPY, André Mama Fouda, together with the Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon, Wei Wenhua, and a delegation of medical staff from China and Cameroon visited various wards in the hospital to see for themselves the know-how of the Chinese medical mission.

The cooperation between Cameroon and the People’s Republic of China entails the exchange of human resources, material resources, research, training, consumables, drugs, infrastructural gifts as well as intimate relationship certain hospitals in Cameroon share with the Mother and Child Hospitals of Shanxi, which is one of the 13 best hospitals in China and from where medical experts are sent to Cameroon. The way forward is to strengthen the mutually beneficial cooperation by building stronger ties between health staff for the wellbeing of the population.

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Ngwa Bertrand

09.Jun.2015

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The Bui Family Union-United States of America aka NSO Cultural and Development Association Partnership on the 27th of May in the Nso Palace distributed medical equipment and material to some 40 health establishments drawn from all the six Sub Divisions of Bui worth over 300 million CFA. Dr. Christian Bime, the President of the Bui Family Union USA handed over the donations in a soul searching ceremony that brought Fons of seven Fondoms and the representatives of some Fondoms in Bui Division, Mayors, the administrators and religious heads of Bui Division, and Chiefs of health institutions and many traditional dances and choral groups.

According to Dr. Christian Bime the project which started in 2009 has long been over due and was aimed at assisting, increasing and improving health infrastructure located in the Bui constituency. He observed that after their maiden meeting in the US, they completed the first phase of donating medical equipment to health centres "then we found out if we could get more and so we partnered with “MAKE NGO based in Atlanta Georgia to be able to obtain and donate medical equipment valued at more than 300 million francs". He lavished praises on Mformi Ndzerem Stephen Njodzeka, the National President of NSODA who through his services inspired them and the entire nation. He said there is greater power when individuals come to work together and to partner with a community to bring change.

Other speakers during the ceremony included Mformi Ndzerem Stephen Njodzeka, an elite of Bui, Mayor Fonyuy Fidelis Bernsah who spoke for the elite, the first Deputy Mayor of Kumbo council Mrs. Lukong Beri Magaret and the Senior Divisional Officer for Bui Mr. Nzeki Theophile all who unanimously lauded the government of Cameroon through the Prime Minister and Head of Government Mr. Yang Philemon, the Ministers of Finance and public health as well as NSODA for the various roles played to ensure the shipment of the equipment was exonerated from the payment of customs duties. 

The climax of the event was recorded when Dr. Christian Bime on behalf of BFU-USA conferred an appreciation award on Mformi Ndzerem Stephen Njodzeka for job well done. Reacting to the award, Mformi Ndzerem Stephen Njodzeka in his speech said their new vision is to build a strong partnership with the government of Cameroon.  The celebration started with an ecumenical service by a series of clergy men coordinated by Rev. Fr. Paul Verla.

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.May.2015

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