Category: Medical

The Minister of Public Health, Dr. Manaouda Malachi, has reiterated the commitment of the Cameroon government to eradicate malaria in Cameroon.

He was speaking this April 25th during a workshop organized in Yaounde on the occasion of the commemoration of the 16th edition of world malaria day celebrated this year under the theme: “Time to deliver zero malaria, invest, innovate, implement”.

“This April 25th the whole world is organizing a setup advocacy in favor of the fight against malaria. Cameroon which is not left behind has joined the international community for this advocacy in taking stock of the enforcement over the past 12 months. This is also the opportunity to reiterate the commitment of the Cameroon government and its partner to eradicate this disease,” Dr Manaouda stated.

The US Ambassador to Cameroon, Christopher John Lamora declared that the US government has invested billions in the fight against the disease.

“Through the President’s Malaria Initiative, PMI, the US government has invested more than 80 billion FCFA in Cameroon since 2017. This investment has helped to reduce overall child mortality by more than 35 %.

“Between 2017 and 2022, PMI in collaboration with Cameroon’s malaria control program, has provided seasonal malaria chemoprevention treatment to close to 2 million children annually and supported more than 75,000 capacity building trainings for Cameroonian health workers. Last year, the government delivered more than 5,000 insecticides treated mosquito nets, 9 million doses of seasonal malaria chemoprevention treatment, and 2 million rapid diagnoses tests in the North and Far North regions.”

The Ambassador further explained that the US government has been involved in the global fight against malaria from the 1950s till date.

Various stakeholders have therefore reflected on the progress made so far in eradicating the disease as well as highlighted the need for continuous investment and sustained political, economic and social commitment to prevent and get rid of malaria.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Kalumbi Shangula is leading a delegation of medical doctors and local and national health managers on a weeklong fact-finding mission to clinics, health centres and State hospitals in the Otjozondjupa Region.

Shangula and his delegation started the mission on Monday in the Okakarara Constituency.

At the Okakarara State Hospital, Shangula addressed nurses and administration officers saying he is keen to listen to them as well as to see challenges they face in handling the health affairs at the hospital.

“We are also here to see challenges faced at the mortuary, and with the medicine stockpile, old buildings, ambulances and turnover of nurses and administrators at your health facilities,” he said.

The minister further said clinics, heath centres and hospitals in the jurisdictions of Otjiwarongo, Etunda, Otavi, Kombat and Grootfontein were next to be visited on Tuesday, while those in Gam and Tsumkwe settlements were scheduled for Wednesday.

The ministry also plans to commemorate World Tuberculosis Day at the Tsumkwe settlement on Thursday.

Friday will be dedicated to visiting the Omatako and Mangetti Dune health centres in the same Tsumkwe Constituency, Dr Shangula said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

Already 5 persons have died of cholera in the Centre region of Cameroon and 88 cases have been detected as of April 19 with a mortality rate of 5.68%. The information was revealed on Wednesday April 19th by the Minister of public ealth, Dr Manaouda Malachie in a release as he calls on Cameroonians to be vigilant and to respect food hygiene practices.

According to the Dr Manaouda Malachie, the cases were detected in the Obala, Djoungolo, Cité Verte, Biyemassi, Mfou and Nkolndongo health districts and need to be properly handled so as to avoid its spread to other parts of the country.

Let’s recall that in 2022, Cameroon was among several countries in West and Central Africa that experienced recurrent cholera outbreaks. According to data from the World Health Organization, between 29 October 2021 and 30 April 2022, a total of 6,652 suspected cases including 134 deaths (case fatality ratio 2%) were reported in 6 regions of the country.

The South-West had 4,617 cases, 77 deaths

The Littoral recorded 1,704 cases, 51 deaths,

The South 183 cases with 2 deaths,

The Centre 125 cases, four deaths,

The North 15 cases, no death and Far North eight cases, no death.

We also learn that of the 6,652 suspected cases, 5,960 cases that is 90%, including 93 deaths (69%) were reported in 2022.

The Minister however reassures public opinion that necessary preventive and curative measures will continue to be taken to prevent the spread of the disease. Some of these measures are sensitization campaigns, disinfecting households and communities, water purification kits made available by teams from the Regional Delegation of Public Health for the Centre to avoid its spread to other regions among other measures.

Dr Manaouda Malachie concludes the release by saying suspected cases with symptoms such as persistent diarrhea and vomiting should be immediately taken to hospital for prompt medical action or people who suspect they could be sick can also call the toll free number 1510 for further information.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Seychelles’ Cabinet of Ministers has given its approval for the island nation to host the 19th annual Indian Ocean colloquium on HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis and Addictology from 13-15 November.

The statement was made by Vice President Ahmed Afif in a press briefing on the Cabinet decisions on Thursday.

“It is a group that Seychelles is part of and every year one of the countries hosts it. In 2019, we made a commitment that we will host it in 2023. Around 200 delegates will attend and we will have the opportunity to learn from the professionals.

The groups consist of Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Reunion and Comoros.

Island nation’s health situation ‘alarming’

Afif said that the Cabinet was also briefed on the nation’s health and health services through professional presentations.

He said the situation is alarming as in many instances things have become worse and the principal factors are cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use, eating habits and behaviour.

“The situation is quite alarming in the sense that they looked at the principal symptoms our people are suffering from. Many of them have to do with heart diseases, diabetes, cancer and lung diseases. These are principally non-communicable illnesses which means they are either hereditary or related to people’s lifestyles. They compared our lifestyle from 1989 to around 2013,” said Afif.

He said the areas where there are improvements in the number of people who used to smoke. In 1989, it amounted to 30 percent of Seychelles’ population and now it is 17 percent. People with high blood pressure have gone down from 38 percent to 30 percent and cholesterol from 45 percent to 36 percent.

Things have worsened in the percentage of people who are obese or overweight. In 1989, it was 40 percent and now it is 64 percent. Furthermore, among the girls up to Secondary 4 (15-16 years) – 35 percent are overweight and among the boys in the same age group it is 30 percent. Diabetes was found in only 6 percent of the population and has almost doubled to 11 percent.

In Seychelles, healthcare is free and, therefore, changes in illness factors have a direct impact on the government’s budget.

“We believe that it is alarming because these are the factors that tomorrow will put a cost on services offered by the Ministry of Health. The report shows that one of the illnesses caused by these factors is kidney disease which means dialysis and today we are spending around SCR 80 million [$6.25 million] for 200 patients. There are other diseases that come with a heavy cost like overseas treatment for around 200 cancer patients at SCR 50 million [$3.9 million] every year. This comes to a total of SCR 130 million [$10.2 million], which represents 10 percent of the health ministry’s budget for the 400 patients,” he said.

He said this is alarming for the Cabinet because if the number of patients doubled it will mean that less than 1 percent of Seychelles’ population is using 20 percent of the health budget.

He gave other treatment costs per patient per month.

“Many people talk about the cost of the methadone treatment but in fact, there are other illnesses costing us more. The medical cost of methadone is SCR150 [$12] each month for one patient. A person on the anti-retroviral treatment for HIV is SCR 1,600 [$125] per month, tuberculosis is SCR 350 [$27] per month, or hepatitis SCR 4,000 [$312] per month, dialysis SCR 33,000 [$2600] per month, for overseas treatment on average is 21,000 [$1600] per month,” said Afif.

He said that this is why the Ministry of Health needs a budget of SCR1.3 billion [$78 million ] per year while many of the constraints it is facing are coming from outside the Ministry.

“So, we must at all cost look for ways to control those illnesses that we can because some like cancer is often hereditary and beyond our control. What we can control is the way we eat, encourage our people to do more exercises, consume less cigarettes, alcohol and drugs,” he added.

Afif reminded people that “our health is our responsibility.”

He said that “in the short term, the government must take note of the current situation and we must accept if are at fault and correct them. In the presentation, the professionals also recommended what we must do to improve the situation.”

Source: Seychelles News Agency

The Public should be measured in the way they insult members of the National Peace Council, Reverend Dr. Ernest Adu Gyamfi, Chairman, National Peace Council, has said.

“This time around, the public should be made to know that the work of the Council is not a paid job. There is nobody on the Peace Council who is being paid a salary.

These are eminent person who are serving the society and therefore people should be measured in the way they insult or bash the Peace Council.”

Rev. Dr Adu Gyamfi said when the Council met executives of the various political parties at Osu in Accra over issues of use of hate speech and other forms of indecent expressions.

He regretted that in most cases, the media gave people the platform to abuse them.

The National Peace Council has noted that the phenomenon of hate speech and indecent forms of expressions have grown suddenly, and the proliferation of such behaviour was more noticeable during election years.

According to him, the Council was not asleep, and its members were seriously working to ensure peace in the country.

He said there were 292 cases on the lap of the Council and out of these cases, 112 were chieftaincy issues, so there were several things the Council was doing.

He explained that the Council did not only deal with issues of politics adding that the council had met with leadership of the National Democratic Congress, New Patriotic Party, member of GPRTU and market women on issues of vigilantism, among others.

“We are actively involved in the Bawku issues, and we have held talks with leadership in various hot spots in the country. We also had training on issues of jihadists in the North, issues of maritime piracy have also been discussed with fisherfolks in Ada and Elmina, among others.

Yet people come to say that the Peace Council is asleep, and they only come out to talk when there are elections.”

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Red Cross and the World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Sudan’s warring parties to guarantee humanitarian access for those in need as the death toll in the fighting neared 200.

Explosions rocked the capital Khartoum on the fourth day of fighting, despite growing international calls for an end to hostilities.

“All parties must ensure unrestricted and safe access to health facilities for those injured and everyone in need of medical care,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

The United Nations currently has no access in or out of Sudan.

Spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said the UN had about 800 international and 3,200 national staff in the country.

“We are of course worried for the security, they cannot operate in a regular way,” she said.

Nearly one third of the Sudanese population — almost 16 million people — needed humanitarian aid at the start of this year.

“We have thousands of volunteers who are ready, able and trained to perform humanitarian services” in the country, said Farid Aiywar, the Sudan head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

“Unfortunately, due to the current situation, they are not able to move,” he told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Nairobi.

Aiywar called on all parties to allow humanitarian aid corridors to operate.

Civilians are staying indoors but electricity and water have been cut and food supplies are short.

Tedros said supplies the WHO distributed to health facilities before the outbreak of violence were now exhausted.

He said Khartoum hospitals receiving injured civilians were reporting shortages of staff and lifesaving medical supplies, while they were also being hampered by fuel shortages and cuts to power and water.

“There are disturbing reports of some health facilities being looted and others being used for military purposes,” he said.

“It is also reported that some hospitals are already closed, or on the brink of closure, due to attacks, and a lack of medical personnel and medical supplies.

“I urge all sides to heed the calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, to silence the guns and to work towards a peaceful resolution.”

Source: Seychelles News Agency

Zambia will continue to assist Seychelles with human resources for the education and health sectors, said the newly accredited High Commissioner ?f Zambia to Seychelles on Tuesday.

Joyce Kasosa made the statement after she presented her credentials to Seychelles’ President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House.

“Many of our discussions today were about human resources, where Zambia will continue to help in the education sectors with teachers, while 25 Zambian doctors from different fields are also being recruited to work in Seychelles,” said Kasosa.

She added that Zambia will also look into assisting with human resources in other areas such as architecture, engineering, the legal field and others.

“We also discussed trade between the two countries, where we emphasised that as African countries, we need to support each other,” added Kasosa.

With no direct flight connecting between Zambia and Seychelles, Kasosa said that this was also an area of discussion. She said that having a direct connection between the two nations will help strengthen the relationship and enable Zambians to visit Seychelles and vice-versa.

Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, established diplomatic relations with Zambia on March 11, 1998.

During her stay in Seychelles, the high commissioner, who will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, will also call on other top officials and dignitaries.

Kasosa succeeds High Commissioner Brenda Muntemba.

Source: Seychelles News Agency