Cameroon

Fighting Malnutrition Among Refugees in Cameroon

Fighting Malnutrition Among Refugees in Cameroon

Samira Suleman is carrying her six-month old twins and is trying to breastfeed them but she cannot produce enough milk. “I have not eaten since morning so my milk is not flowing and I have no other way to feed my children.

When I manage to have some food, I am happy because it enables me to produce some breast milk for my twins,” says this 26-year old mother. She arrived in Mboy in eastern Cameroon with her family about four months ago, after fleeing the ongoing violence in neighbouring Central African Republic.

Not far from Samira is Awawou Bakari who is reeling from the loss of one of her newborn twins who died the previous day, just a few hours after birth. “My baby did not survive. I suffered a lot during the last quarter of my pregnancy because my antenatal visits were interrupted due to lack of resources. We spent all our money on transportation to get to the Cameroon border. Here in Mboy, we usually go several days without any meals. Sometimes the villagers give us a few kilograms of maize,” recounts Awawou, in a barely audible voice.

Both women now live in a refugee camp in Yokadouma, along with over 650 other people, where access to drinking water is also very difficult, with the lone supply source not up to consumption standards. “It is very difficult for us to get water and in order to get some, we need to travel several kilometres to reach the source. We give our children this water because we have no other choice,” adds Awawou.

Their stories echo those of thousands of other families, driven from their villages by the fighting and violence that has plunged the Central African Republic into total chaos for more than a year now.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that 88,939 men, women and children fled their homes, heading to the relative safety found in refugee camps and host communities in the east, Adamawa and far north regions of Cameroon.

The majority are preferring to remain in the east region, close to their home country. More than 43,000 sit in transit centres, still waiting to be transferred to camps. They live in precarious conditions and lack shelter, food and health care. While they wait, entry points into Cameroon continue to bustle, with new refugees arriving by the hundreds daily.

At the Garoua-Boulai transit camp, a team of Cameroon Red Cross Society volunteers is actively taking care of 600 new refugees. These teams conduct malnutrition screening among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

“We have recorded 16 cases of malnourished children since morning,” says Ina Kombo, a volunteer in charge of screening at the site. “Ten children were moderately malnourished while six were severe. Cases of severe malnutrition are referred to the Garoua-Boulai district hospital for immediate care.”

The majority of refugees arriving in Cameroon are children (57 per cent). Many are suffering the effects of not having adequate nutritious food to eat, the results of which can lead to life-long challenges.

Undernourished children are less able to ward off infection and are more susceptible to common childhood ailments like diarrhoea and respiratory infections. Sickness keeps them out of school, which later affects their ability to attend higher education.

“Since the outbreak of the crisis, we have detected more than 500 cases of malnutrition among the target population in the Gado camp alone,” says Faustin Tsimi, emergency operations coordinator, Cameroon Red Cross Society.

“These patients are treated in various hospitals by a joint team from the Cameroon Red Cross, the ministry of public health and other humanitarian agencies. The management of malnutrition equally includes the provision of food supplements to patients, implemented in partnership with the World Food Programme.”

More than 300 Red Cross volunteers have been deployed as part of this operation, some of whom will support the French Red Cross Society in the management of malnutrition in Timangolo, which now hosts 750 refugees. The teams will manage an integrated health centre which is being refurbished and which specializes in maternal and child health and nutrition.

As part of its support to the Cameroon Red Cross Society, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) revised its emergency appeal in the country in a bid to provide further assistance to the increasing influx of new refugees, focusing on malnutrition. “We are doing our best to cover the basic needs of the population.

However, we are facing an increasing demand due to the arrival of new refugees. Evaluation missions conducted by our teams will enable us to improve assistance to thousands of new refugees. It is only through effective mobilization of the international community that we can reduce the vulnerability of refugees and host populations,” says Denis Duffaut, IFRC regional representative, Central Africa.

The revised emergency appeal of 642,579 Swiss francs is currently 66 per cent funded.

Source: all africa

Cameroon Red Cross Society Fights Polio Epidemic in Six Regions

cameroon_polio_Main2

“A case of polio was discovered in west Cameroon in September 2013,” says Dr Simeon Koutang from the Cameroon Red Cross Society.

“The seven year old child who was hit by paralysis of the lower limbs had never received any vaccine. He did not have a vaccination card and was not registered in the files of the Expanded Programme on Immunization centre.”

Further investigation revealed ten cases of people with acute paralysis, the first time polio had surfaced in Cameroon since 2009. “We were faced with an epidemic of wild polio virus,” explains Dr Koutang.

The Cameroonian government together with its partners, including the Cameroon Red Cross Society, responded, focusing on a common action consisting of organizing vaccination campaigns in the most affected areas, as well as those at risk.

Using funds provided through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Disaster Response Emergency Fund, 670 volunteers were mobilized and deployed in health districts to support field actions.

“Our teams have conducted mass awareness campaigns to prepare populations for vaccination. They ensured the immunization coverage survey that takes place during the deployment of vaccinators was done. They also helped to detect cases of unvaccinated children,” says Dr Koutang.

Volunteers also went door to door and talked to religious and traditional leaders who then encouraged reluctant communities to take part in the vaccination campaigns.

Through its effort as part of the government’s response, the Red Cross reached an estimated 700,000 children under the age of 10 during the two campaigns.

The campaigns also included monitoring by ten Red Cross supervisors who were deployed to identify and vaccinate children who had been missed during the first round of vaccinations, and to identify areas at risk for future campaigns.

Over the years, the Cameroon Red Cross Society has established itself as a key partner of the government in the fight against polio.

In November 2012, the National Society took part in a vaccination campaign against polio organized in the three northern regions of the country by mobilizing more than 1,200 volunteers.

“The Cameroon Minister of Health has recognized the added value of having the Cameroon Red Cross Society as a key partner in the fight against polio,” says Dr Viviane Nzeusseu, IFRC regional health coordinator. “Their volunteers and efficiency of work solidifies their commitment battling this preventable disease.”

Source: All africa

Cameroon steps up war on malaria amid worsening floods

Cameroon steps up war on malaria amid worsening floods

Cameroon is seeking ways to mobilise its citizens to support a government-led campaign against soaring malaria deaths, as worsening floods aggravate health risks.

Government officials in the central-west African country say regular flooding due to erratic rains is partly responsible for the recent spike in deaths from vector-borne diseases, because standing water encourages malaria-carrying mosquitoes to breed.

“The increase in the death rate from malaria in Cameroon is disturbing indeed, especially at a time when efforts to combat the disease in African were yielding positive results. The Cameroon government, however, is sparing no efforts to reverse the trend,” Alim Hayatou, secretary of state in charge of epidemics and pandemics, told the launch of a nationwide campaign against vector-borne diseases in March.

Hayatou said the 2014 campaign aims to step up official efforts to reduce the death rate from malaria by at least 75 percent before 2018, and to alleviate its heavy social and economic burden on the population.

The annual death toll from malaria in Cameroon jumped from less than 2,000 in 2011 and 2012 to over 3,200 in 2013, according to statistics from Malaria No More, an international NGO fighting the disease in Africa.

Government officials, health experts and environmentalists are unanimous on the need for a joint push to keep malaria at bay.

Against this backdrop, the government – alongside partners including UNICEF, Plan Cameroon and Malaria No More – announced a boost to the anti-malaria campaign K.O. PALU (Kick Out Malaria) with a door-to-door distribution of treated mosquito nets to families, especially with pregnant women and children, accompanied by environmental education.

PLASTIC BAG BAN

According to Cameroon’s minister of public health, André Mama Fouda, Cameroon saw the distribution of free treated mosquito nets rise from 33 percent of the population in 2011 to 66 percent in 2013. But the death rate has paradoxically increased, indicating the need to accompany net handouts with messages about the environment and good hygiene practices.

“Exerting unprecedented control over the unfriendly behaviour of people towards the environment is key to succeeding in the fight against malaria and other vector-borne diseases,” the minister said.

In 2013, the government banned the production, sale and use of non-biodegradable plastic bags – which health and environment experts say have clogged up drains and gutters, contributing to floods.

“The reckless littering of…plastics on streets and waterways are some of the barriers to efforts to fight floods, because they block drainage facilities,” Tansi Laban of the ministry of environment and nature protection told Thomson Reuters Foundation in Yaounde.

“Worse still, many households and companies dispose of plastic bags by burning them, which emits toxic gases that harm the atmosphere and increase the level of dioxins and carbon dioxide in the air, resulting in ozone layer depletion. This leads to global warming and climate change,” the official added.

The government delegate to Douala City Council, Fritz Ntone Ntone, said at the malaria campaign launch that the council had completed a drainage project to channel run-off water during heavy rains into the River Wouri, in response to persistent flooding and pollution of some areas. The project, which began in January 2013 and ended this March, cost the council some 785 million FCFA ($1.57 million).

The cities of Douala in the Littoral Region and Mokolo in the Far North Region, which suffered heavy floods in 2012 and 2013, accounted for over 40 percent of malaria deaths last year, pointing to the negative effects of weather extremes for public health, experts say.

The problems of regular flooding and poor drainage need to be addressed to prevent mosquitoes breeding, said Olivia Ngou, Cameroon country director of Malaria No More.

Environmentalists have blamed Douala’s tendency to flooding on the exploitation of mangrove forests near the coast by fishermen who cut down trees to smoke fish, leaving the shore bare of vegetation and removing protection against storm surges and sea-level rise.

NETS NOT USED

Statistics from the public health ministry show that children younger than five and pregnant women are the groups most vulnerable to malaria, registering over 40 percent of deaths in 2013. More than 1.6 million Cameroonians are affected by the disease each year.

The government is concerned that the population is not collaborating sufficiently with the anti-malaria drive.

Last June, on World Environment Day, environment minister Pierre Hélé expressed regret that climate change was playing out in people’s lives, yet few paid attention to ways of averting the potential risks.

Some climate change projects have either failed to take off, or have been poorly or partially implemented due to corruption and administrative bottlenecks, he said. The minister cited the planned construction of a canal to stop flooding in Douala, which was announced by the government in 2012 but has yet to begin amid allegations over mismanagement of funds.

Health workers say many people have malaria nets but do not use them because of excessive heat in the city due to overcrowding and rising temperatures linked to greenhouse gas emissions from local industry in the country’s commercial capital.

Isaac Ebong, a doctor at Laquantini hospital in Douala, told Thomson Reuters Foundation that patients complain the nets are too warm to sleep under.

WHO SUPPORT

The World Health Organization (WHO) country representative in Cameroon, Charlotte Faty Ndiaye, said at the anti-malaria campaign launch her agency stood poised to help the government, as in previous years.

“WHO is always ready to work with government and civil society organisations to improve the health of the population. Thanks to efforts by WHO, some 337 million cases of malaria were prevented between 2001 and 2012,” she said.

Malaria is an entirely preventable and treatable mosquito-borne illness, according to the WHO.

An estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk of malaria worldwide, according to a 2013 WHO report. Of these, 1.2 billion are at high risk, in areas where more than 1 malaria case occurs per 1,000 people.

Globally, there were an estimated 207 million cases of malaria in 2012, and an estimated 627,000 deaths. The report said 90 percent of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.

Source: one trust

Cameroon Steps Up War On Malaria Amid Worsening Floods

2

Cameroon is seeking ways to mobilise its citizens to support a government-led campaign against soaring malaria deaths, as worsening floods aggravate health risks.

Government officials in the central-west African country say regular flooding due to erratic rains is partly responsible for the recent spike in deaths from vector-borne diseases, because standing water encourages malaria-carrying mosquitoes to breed.

“The increase in the death rate from malaria in Cameroon is disturbing indeed, especially at a time when efforts to combat the disease in African were yielding positive results. The Cameroon government, however, is sparing no efforts to reverse the trend,” Alim Hayatou, secretary of state in charge of epidemics and pandemics, told the launch of a nationwide campaign against vector-borne diseases in March.

Hayatou said the 2014 campaign aims to step up official efforts to reduce the death rate from malaria by at least 75 percent before 2018, and to alleviate its heavy social and economic burden on the population.

The annual death toll from malaria in Cameroon jumped from less than 2,000 in 2011 and 2012 to over 3,200 in 2013, according to statistics from Malaria No More, an international NGO fighting the disease in Africa.

Government officials, health experts and environmentalists are unanimous on the need for a joint push to keep malaria at bay.

Against this backdrop, the government – alongside partners including UNICEF, Plan Cameroon and Malaria No More – announced a boost to the anti-malaria campaign K.O. PALU (Kick Out Malaria) with a door-to-door distribution of treated mosquito nets to families, especially with pregnant women and children, accompanied by environmental education.

PLASTIC BAG BAN

According to Cameroon’s minister of public health, André Mama Fouda, Cameroon saw the distribution of free treated mosquito nets rise from 33 percent of the population in 2011 to 66 percent in 2013. But the death rate has paradoxically increased, indicating the need to accompany net handouts with messages about the environment and good hygiene practices.

“Exerting unprecedented control over the unfriendly behaviour of people towards the environment is key to succeeding in the fight against malaria and other vector-borne diseases,” the minister said.

In 2013, the government banned the production, sale and use of non-biodegradable plastic bags – which health and environment experts say have clogged up drains and gutters, contributing to floods.

“The reckless littering of…plastics on streets and waterways are some of the barriers to efforts to fight floods, because they block drainage facilities,” Tansi Laban of the ministry of environment and nature protection told Thomson Reuters Foundation in Yaounde.

“Worse still, many households and companies dispose of plastic bags by burning them, which emits toxic gases that harm the atmosphere and increase the level of dioxins and carbon dioxide in the air, resulting in ozone layer depletion. This leads to global warming and climate change,” the official added.

The government delegate to Douala City Council, Fritz Ntone Ntone, said at the malaria campaign launch that the council had completed a drainage project to channel run-off water during heavy rains into the River Wouri, in response to persistent flooding and pollution of some areas. The project, which began in January 2013 and ended this March, cost the council some 785 million FCFA ($1.57 million).

The cities of Douala in the Littoral Region and Mokolo in the Far North Region, which suffered heavy floods in 2012 and 2013, accounted for over 40 percent of malaria deaths last year, pointing to the negative effects of weather extremes for public health, experts say.

The problems of regular flooding and poor drainage need to be addressed to prevent mosquitoes breeding, said Olivia Ngou, Cameroon country director of Malaria No More.

Environmentalists have blamed Douala’s tendency to flooding on the exploitation of mangrove forests near the coast by fishermen who cut down trees to smoke fish, leaving the shore bare of vegetation and removing protection against storm surges and sea-level rise.

NETS NOT USED

Statistics from the public health ministry show that children younger than five and pregnant women are the groups most vulnerable to malaria, registering over 40 percent of deaths in 2013. More than 1.6 million Cameroonians are affected by the disease each year.

The government is concerned that the population is not collaborating sufficiently with the anti-malaria drive. Last June, on World Environment Day, environment minister Pierre Hélé expressed regret that climate change was playing out in people’s lives,  yet few paid attention to ways of averting the potential risks.

Some climate change projects have either failed to take off, or have been poorly or partially implemented due to corruption and administrative bottlenecks, he said. The minister cited the planned construction of a canal to stop flooding in Douala, which was announced by the government in 2012 but has yet to begin amid allegations over mismanagement of funds.

Health workers say many people have malaria nets but do not use them because of excessive heat in the city due to overcrowding and rising temperatures linked to greenhouse gas emissions from local industry in
the country’s commercial capital.

Isaac Ebong, a doctor at Laquantini hospital in Douala, told Thomson Reuters Foundation that patients complain the nets are too warm to sleep under.

WHO SUPPORT

The World Health Organization (WHO) country representative in Cameroon, Charlotte Faty Ndiaye, said at the anti-malaria campaign launch her agency stood poised to help the government, as in previous years.

“WHO is always ready to work with government and civil society organisations to improve the health of the population. Thanks to efforts by WHO, some 337 million cases of malaria were prevented between 2001 and 2012,” she said.

Malaria is an entirely preventable and treatable mosquito-borne illness, according to the WHO.An estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk of malaria worldwide, according to a 2013 WHO report. Of these, 1.2 billion are at high risk, in areas where more than 1 malaria case occurs per 1,000 people.

Globally, there were an estimated 207 million cases of malaria in 2012,  and an estimated 627,000 deaths. The report said 90 percent of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa

Source: Thomson reuters foundation

Malnutrition On the Rise for Children in the North

Some 100,000 children, including Nigerian refugees fleeing attacks from the extremist sect Boko Haram, are suffering from acute malnutrition in northern Cameroon. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Health officials and United Nations agencies have been visiting the children and are promising assistance.

Badyne Mansto cries as her five-year-old child is buried near her house in Maroua, northern Cameroon. She told VOA the child lost weight and died at a private hospital two hours after she was admitted. She blamed the staff for not attending to her immediately when she arrived.

Hospital staff say they are overwhelmed. Mamha Catherine is one of them.

“As you can see, there are so many patients than we can attend to. We lack infrastructure, we lack staff, so what is certain is that some of the children whose lives may have been saved will end up dying,” she said.

Dire situation

Aiida Maimonatou, who is at the hospital with her baby, is getting impatient. She said when her first child was not well, she took him to a traditional healer and he died. Now she has brought her second child to the hospital because the government is asking people not to go for traditional treatment. But, she says, “since I came here, nobody has attended to me.”

Among the malnourished children are Nigerian refugees fleeing from the Islamist militant sect Boko Haram. At their camp in Menowo in Mayo Tsanaga Division where 7,000 refugees live, more than 300 children are suffering.

Comfort Manda, who said she fled Borno State, said she has lost a child to malnutrition.

“My brother, it is very difficult. I don’t know what to tell you, but the situation that I met here is so deplorable that I don’t know what to do now,” said Manda. “I came in from Nigeria and my two children are sick, I have taken them to the hospital and find it difficult to provide their medicine. One of them already died and I am still struggling with one of them. I do not know what will happen at the end. Added to this, there is no food, there is no water and when children are sick they drink a lot of water. We are not able to have even water to give our children. It is very difficult.”

Dr. Ndansi Elvis said the crisis is aggravated because refugees have to compete with the local population for food and water.

“These people come and there is competition for food. And when there is competition for food, there is also limited supply and the prices go up. And there is the problem of early marriages. You will not expect that a 17-year-old who has a child actually understands the nutritional needs of a child as much as a mature woman,” said Elvis.

“It’s astonishing that this is a public health problem but little attention is given to it. I go through the budget of the Ministry of Public Health for this year and I don’t think that even up to 500 million CFA franc [$1 million] has been allocated for any program as far as malnutrition is concerned,” Elvis continued.

Jean Mark Eding of Doctors Without Borders said a number of factors are contributing to the increasing number of malnourished children this year.

“The first thing is the absence or insufficient food for the children,” he said. “There are also environmental factors, like droughts, floods, dykes that give way, insects that destroy crops and reduce food production.”

UNICEF says large sectors of Cameroon’s population lack access to basic health services, safe water, sanitation facilities and basic education. The agency is appealing for funds to prevent and combat malnutrition. Its officials and other United Nations agencies have been visiting the malnourished children and promising to help as soon as they get the funds.

Source: All Africa

Guinea Rushes to Curb Measles Outbreak

Health authorities in Guinea are scrambling to contain a measles outbreak that has killed one child, infected 37 others and spread to half of the country’s 33 districts.

More than 400 suspected cases, nearly all of them in children under 10 years old, have been registered. A vaccination campaign targeting over 1.6 million children is to be launched in the coming weeks.

“We have moved from three affected districts in Conakry before the end of last year to the whole city now being affected. Five more districts out of Conakry are also affected. It means that it could spread throughout the country,” said Felix Ackebo, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) deputy representative for Guinea.

“One of the causes is the nature of the disease. The other is the social/political instability. Many bilateral donors stopped support, awaiting the holding of legislative elections. The whole health system has been weakened. The government was restricted on what it could purchase, and this affected [availability of] vaccines and other important drugs. Many of the basic social services have suffered from this pause in investment,” Ackebo told IRIN. “In the past, we have been obliged to buy measles vaccines and others because the government could not.”

Only 37 percent of Guinean children are fully vaccinated, according to the 2012 Demographic Health Survey. The country’s last measles epidemic, in 2009, infected 4,755 people and killed 10.

Keita Sakoba, head of disease prevention at the Ministry of Health, said that the current stock of measles vaccine, meant for routine immunization, was insufficient for the vaccination drive. He explained that the outbreak was likely due to the accumulation of unvaccinated children.

“We will launch a vaccination campaign in the 15 affected districts and carry out targeted immunizations in districts neighbouring the affected ones,” Sakoba said.

Source: All Africa