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Details: Health

Cameroon doctors are in the second phase of their strike action, which will cover three days (from Monday to Wednesday). The peaceful strike was preceded on Sunday by a call from the leaders of the Cameroon Doctors’ Trade Union for the Minister of Public Health to step down.

The call for Mama Fouda’s resignation was made during a press conference on Sunday in Yaoundé. During the press outing, leaders of the trade union denounced the minister’s decision to post them to remote areas of the nation.

Accusing, the minister of “killing scores of Cameroonians”, the health experts urged Mama Fouda to park and go. It is not a bad idea to post doctors to remote places but what is deplored is the fact that the doctors in town cannot do well in those areas since they will have to treat diseases which are not in their field of specialization, they pointed out.

The doctors argued that most of them have spent several years in town, handling specific diseases. But in rural places, they would be forced to treat cases they do not master well.

The Minister of Public had decided to transfer the leaders of the trade union to distant places, away from town. Whether he wanted to perturb the planned strike action or simply wanted to protect vulnerable Cameroonians, it is up to him to tell the public.

Medical doctors in Cameroon have been at loggerheads with the government for a while now. They are demanding general health insurance coverage ‘for all’, a review of the retirement age of doctors (from 55 years to 65) as well as pay increase.

This phase of the strike was announced earlier this month by the doctors’ trade union (SYMEC) after receiving the backing of the body regulating the activity of doctors in Cameroon (National Medical Council).

Mama Fouda had always considered SYMEC as an illegal group that had no right to organize a strike action of any kind.

In the meantime, doctors handling complicated cases of emergency will have to go to hospital.

Last year there was another strong call for the Minister of Public Health to step down after a woman lost her life and those of her two unborn twins at a reference hospital in Douala. Instead of stepping down, the minister fired the director of Laquintinie.

Details: Tasha Seidou; 15.May.2017; Hits: 2985

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Details: Health

The World Health Organization says the Democratic Republic of the Congo is again facing an outbreak of the contagious and deadly Ebola virus.

Congolese Health Minister Oly Ilunga announced Saturday that three people had died of the virus in the northeast of the country.

Ilunga urged people not to panic and said officials had taken all necessary measures to respond to the outbreak.

The World Health Organization said it was working with Congolese authorities to deploy health workers in the remote area where the three deaths occurred, all on April 22. Eleven other cases are suspected in the area.

WHO's regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, went to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, on Friday to discuss disease response.

The remoteness of the affected area, 1,300 kilometers from Kinshasa, means word of the outbreak was slow to emerge. WHO said specialist teams were expected to arrive in the area, known as the Likati health zone, within the next day or two.

This was the first outbreak of the virus in DRC since 2014, when 49 people died of Ebola.

Larger outbreak

Experts say the 2014 DRC outbreak was not linked to a much larger outbreak that killed 11,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, beginning in 2013. They say active virus transmission for that outbreak was halted last year.

In December 2016, The Lancet, a medical journal, published results of a WHO-led trial showing that the world's first Ebola vaccine provides substantial protection against the virus. Among more than 11,000 people who were vaccinated in the trial, no cases of Ebola virus disease occurred.

Reports say the vaccine is now awaiting formal licensing clearance.

Ebola, named for the Congolese river near where it was first identified in 1976, begins with a sudden fever, aching muscles, diarrhea and vomiting. It is a hemorrhagic fever, marked by spontaneous bleeding from internal organs and, in most cases, death. It can be transmitted by close contact with infected animals or people, usually through blood or other bodily fluids.

People can contract the virus through direct contact with victims' bodies at funerals. Caretakers, nurses and doctors treating Ebola patients also are at high risk.

Details: Rita Akana; 14.May.2017; Hits: 2307

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Details: Health

Six thousand Cameroonians will soon benefit from free medical services from an international NGO. Mercy Ships will, from August 2017, handle complicated conditions needing high-tech surgery.

Mercy Ships will settle at the Douala Sea Port, where it will carry out the ten-month programme.

The NGO was invited to Cameroon by the head of State at the backdrop of growing health concerns in the country, especially for the financially unstable.

Registrations are ongoing in all the ten regions of the country, till 17th May 2017.

Transportation, lodging and feeding are all free: no patient will remove a penny from their pocket, say the authorities in Yaounde.

Interested persons can get to their health district or regional delegation for ample information or registration.

In the meantime, registration teams are complaining of some hitches on the part of the public, as some persons, especially the elderly, bring up just any minute type of ailment, like waist pain.

Mercy Ships is an international NGO based in Texas, the Unites States of Amercia. Founded in 1978 by Donald Stephens (and Deyon Stephens, co-founder), the mission of the humanitarian organization is to provide free healthcare and improve healthcare delivery systems in the poorest nations of the world.

With its slogan as “Bringing hope and healing”, Mercy Ships lays emphasis on surgery, healthcare and development. So far, it has operated in more than 50 developing nations, and about 18 developed countries.

Details: Rita Akana; 10.May.2017; Hits: 3718

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Details: Health

Football legend, Samuel Eto’o Fils has constructed a pediatric centre in Douala worth CFA 700 million.

The centre dubbed “Pavillon Samuel Eto’o” is constructed at Hopital Laquintinie, a referential hospital in Douala.

The initiative, which will reduce the rate of infant mortality as well as childbirth related complications for women, is an act of generosity from the Samuel Eto’o Foundation.

The centre will improve reception and treatment of children, and provides more technical facilities for the prestigious hospital.

Speaking during the inaugural ceremony on Monday, Samuel Eto’o disclosed his motivation. “It is important for us to make such contributions so that our future mothers have a place where they can receive medical care,” he revealed.

The minister of Public Health expressed gratitude for the legendary act. “We are saying thank you. It is a very vital move,” Mama Fouda said.

Samuel Eto’o was honoured as a distinguished citizen during the occasion.

Eto’o remains one of the greatest footballers in Africa and Cameroon, with four African Footballer of the Year Awards( with Yaya Toure of Ivory Coast as well), three La Liga titles, two African Cup of Nations, and much more. He has more African goals than any other African player.

Details: Tasha Seidou; 09.May.2017; Hits: 4469

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Details: Health

Medical doctors in Cameroon will continue their strike as planned. May 15, 16 and 17, 2017 are set for another strike action by the medical practitioners. The announcement was made by the Cameroon Medical Doctors Trade Union (SYMEC), maintaining its decision to carry on with the strike action.

The doctors are demanding among other things, an increase in salary and a review of the retirement age. They argue that “it is absolutely unacceptable that in a country with insufficient doctors, some medical practitioners should go on retirement at the age of 55.”

Doctors must not wait for emergence by2035 to receive health insurance coverage, they say, adding that it is unbelievable that some doctors in the public service “are paid CFA 110000.”

Last month they observed another three-day strike.

The Minister of Public Health has always considered the trade union as an illegal group, which has no legal backing to organize any strike action.

However, SYMEC has received the backing of the legal body regulating the activity of doctors in Cameroon.

Cameroon is grappling with many health hazards. And most of its medical doctors go abroad for greener pastures.

It is rather unfortunate that the people who take care of our precious health should complain of low pay when other people whose role in society is not as vital live luxurious life. While doctors undergo a seven-year course without any pay, students of the Advanced School of Administration and Magistracy are paid while they are still in school.

Details: Tasha Seidou; 06.May.2017; Hits: 2921

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Details: Health

The fate of some 695 type 1 diabetes patients is at stake as the end of a support programme gradually draws closer. In 2010 Novo Nordisk laboratory in Yaoundé undertook a seven-year support programme to help diabetic patients below 21 years.

During the seven year period that ends son, the laboratory claims have made considerable effort to reduce mortality by a large margin of about 70%. That is, from 80% to 10%, disclosed Dr Mesmin Dehayem who is a specialist in diabetes.

Nine clinics were constructed over the seven years to handle the patients diagnosed with type1 diabetes.

As the programme draws to an end several parents are running out of hope, especially as the “Minister of Public Health has remained silent on the issue”.

Type 1 diabetes mostly affects children and adolescents, and very rarely adults. Thousands of Cameroonians suffer from this terrible disease.

Medical experts say type1 diabetes is caused by insufficient production of insulin, production of defective insulin or the inability of cells to use insulin properly and efficiently. Insulin, they say, is a hormone that is produced by specialized cells of the pancreas which helps to control the amount of sugar in the blood.

Symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, bedwetting in children who previously did not wet the bed during the night, extreme hunger, unintended weight loss, fatigue and weakness, blurred vision, etc.

In the meantime, people are inviting the government to give it a listening ear in order to save several lives at stake.

Details: Tasha Seidou; 06.May.2017; Hits: 3192

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Flourish Doctor Article Count: 3

Meet Your Coach Dr. Joyce Akwe ... With a master's in public health and a medical doctor specialized in internal medicine with a focus on hospital medicine.

Dr. Joyce Akwe is the Chief of Hospital Medicine at the Atlanta VA Health Care System (Atlanta VAHCS), an Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Faculty with Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta GA.

After Medical school Dr. Akwe worked for the World Health Organization and then decided to go back to clinical medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency and chief resident year at Morehouse School of Medicine. After that, she joined the Atlanta Veterans VAHCS Hospital Medicine team and has been caring for our nation’s Veterans since then.

Dr. Akwe has built her career in service and leadership at the Atlanta VA HealthCare System, but her influence has extended beyond your work at the Atlanta VA, Emory University, and Morehouse School of Medicine. She has mentored multiple young physicians and continuous to do so. She has previously been recognized by the Chapter for her community service (2010), teaching (as recipient of the 2014 J Willis Hurst Outstanding Bedside Teaching Award), and for your inspirational leadership to younger physicians (as recipient of the 2018 Mark Silverman Award). The Walter J. Moore Leadership Award is another laudable milestone in your car

Dr. Akwe teaches medical students, interns and residents. She particularly enjoys bedside teaching and Quality improvement in Health care which is aimed at improving patient care. Dr. Akwe received the distinguished physician award from Emory University School of medicine and the Nanette Wenger Award for leadership. She has published multiple papers on health care topics.