Global immunisation efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, adding that most of those to benefit were infants.

That is the equivalent of six lives saved every minute of every year of the half century, the UN health agency said.

In a study published in the Lancet, WHO gave a comprehensive analysis of the impact of 14 vaccines used under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), which celebrates its 50th anniversary next month.

“Vaccines are among the most powerful inventions in history, making once-feared diseases preventable,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“Thanks to vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated, polio is on the brink, and with the more recent development of vaccines against diseases like malaria and cervical cancer, we are pushing back the frontiers of disease,” he said.

“With continued research, investment and collaboration, we can save millions more lives today and in the next 50 years.”

The study said infants accounted for 101 million of the lives saved through immunisation over the five decades.

“Immunisation was the single greatest contribution of any health intervention to ensuring babies not only see their first birthdays but continue leading healthy lives into adulthood”, WHO said.

Over 50 years, vaccines against 14 diseases — diphtheria, Haemophilus influenza type B, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, measles, meningitis A, pertussis, invasive pneumococcal disease, polio, rotavirus, rubella, tetanus, tuberculosis, and yellow fever — had directly contributed to reducing infant deaths by 40 percent, the study found.

For Africa, the reduction was more than 50 percent, it said.

The vaccine against measles — a highly contagious disease by a virus that attacks mainly children — had the most significant impact.

That jab accounted for 60 percent of the lives saved due to immunisation, according to the study.

The polio vaccine means that more than 20 million people are able to walk today who would otherwise have been paralysed.

The study also showed that when a vaccine saves a child’s life, that person goes on to live an average of 66 years of full health on average -– with a total of 10.2 billion full health years gained over the five decades.

“These gains in childhood survival highlight the importance of protecting immunisation progress,” WHO said, pointing to accelerating efforts to reach 67 million children who missed at least one vaccination during the Covid pandemic.

Source: AFP

The state of health care in Cameroon is a source of growing concern, with thousands of doctors fleeing the central African country for lucrative jobs elsewhere, especially in Europe and North America, according to officials.

The number of people, including doctors, acquiring passports and applying for visas has increased by 70 percent, officials say. In addition, 75 percent of the 1,000 doctors that Cameroon’s government trains each year are leaving.

Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health reports that several hundred doctors are enrolled in what members of the profession see as lucrative schemes to emigrate to Canada. Also, the number of health workers, including doctors, applying for the U.S. government’s Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, is rising.

The Cameroon Medical Council, an association of doctors, says the doctor-patient ratio in Cameroon has sunk to one doctor per 50,000 people, instead of the World Health Organization’s recommended ratio of one doctor per 10,000 patients. The group reports that the doctors are fleeing to escape hardship, poor pay, difficult working conditions and unemployment.

Doctor Peter Louis Ndifor, the council’s vice president, said it is unfortunate that Cameroon trains but does not recruit thousands of its doctors. He spoke to VOA via telephone from Buea, an English-speaking town in southwestern Cameroon.

“The number of registered doctors on the roll[s] of the Cameroon Medical Council is about 13,000, but we have 5,000 to 6,000 doctors in Cameroon presently,” he said. “Doctors quitting Cameroon is an eloquent testimony that doctors are in discomfort, doctors are in distress.”

Cameroon says it currently needs at least 30,000 health workers, including doctors. The country is facing attacks from Boko Haram that have left more than 36,000 people dead, a separatist crisis that has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced about 750,000 others, and the spillover of sectarian violence from neighboring Central African Republic.

The Cameroon Medical Council says the central African country in 2013 launched a program to train about 1,000 doctors in order to improve the doctor-patient ratio, which was then one doctor per 17,000 patients.

However, the government recruits less than 100 doctors each year due to financial constraints, officials say. Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health says it expected privately owned hospitals to recruit a majority of the doctors upon graduation from medical school, but hospitals owned by individuals, communities and churches also recruit less than 100 doctors each year.

Even when recruited, the doctors say they are paid about $100 per month in private hospitals and about $220 per month in government hospitals.

Jathor Godlove, 29, is an unemployed doctor. After seven years of study at the faculty of medicine of Cameroon’s University of Bamenda, he says hardship is forcing him to consider leaving the country.

“I find myself being very restrained and restricted in my capacity to help my family,” he said. “I even have some peers who venture out of medicine because they see that as a medic, when you get somewhere to offer your services, they will tell you they want to pay you 50,000 [Central African CFA] francs a month [around $80 U.S.], which is very funny. Some of them have families, when they find themselves in such situations, they see better opportunities abroad. I think you can’t blame them.”

He says poor working conditions — including the lack of hospital equipment and poor pay — are pushing nurses, midwives and laboratory technicians to join doctors in leaving Cameroon for Europe and North America.

However, some medical staff members who have not been able to travel out of Cameroon offer voluntary services in hospitals like in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region.

Doctor Denis Nsame, director of the Regional Hospital in Bamenda, says unemployed health care workers outnumber health workers hired by the government.

“At the Regional Hospital in Bamenda, out of 600 staff, only 146 are state-employed staff, and we consult on average 45,000 patients per year, carry out about 1,900 surgeries per year, we have deliveries [of babies] close to 250 to 300 every month,” Nsame said.

The Cameroon Medical Council says that some health workers, including doctors, at times go several months without pay. Many of the health workers count on donations and consultation fees from well-wishers and patients to make a living.

In a message to Cameroonian youths last February 11, Cameroonian President Paul Biya said young people’s growing desire to emigrate is increasingly a cause for concern. He said Cameroonians should be patriotic and serve their homeland because the country is facing difficulties and leaving is not a solution.

Doctors and other health workers say the president, if he wants to curb emigration, should improve their living conditions and hospital equipment.

Source: VOA

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners on Wednesday convened a ministerial conference on how to tackle malaria in countries hardest hit by the disease in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé.

While presiding at the opening ceremony, Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute said it is imperative to unite resources to stop people from dying of malaria which is still the number one killer in most African countries.

Inadequate funding remains a major hurdle in the fight against malaria, with the funding gap between the amounts invested and resources needed reaching 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, according to the WHO.

“This Ministerial Conference aims to strengthen political and financial commitments for accelerated malaria responses, with a view to achieving the GTS 2030 targets. (It will) establish a roadmap for increased political commitment and societal engagement in malaria control, with a clear accountability mechanism,” the WHO said in a statement announcing the conference.

Ministers of health and senior government officials from the 11 “High burden to high impact” countries in Africa, namely Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania attended in the conference. They were joined by global malaria partners, funding agencies, civil society organizations and other principal stakeholders.

According to the WHO, globally in 2022, there were an estimated 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 malaria deaths in 85 countries. And Africa was home to 94 percent of malaria cases and 95 percent of malaria deaths. Children under the age of five accounted for about 80 percent of all malaria deaths in the region.

Source: Xinhuanet

The German parliament has backed a new law to allow the recreational use of cannabis.

Under the law, over-18s in Germany will be allowed to possess substantial amounts of cannabis, but strict rules will make it difficult to buy the drug.

Smoking cannabis in many public spaces will become legal from 1 April.

Possession of up to 25g, equivalent to dozens of strong joints, is to be allowed in public spaces. In private homes the legal limit will be 50g.

Already police in some parts of Germany, such as Berlin, often turn a blind eye to smoking in public, although possession of the drug for recreational use is illegal and can be prosecuted.

He wants to undermine the black market, protect smokers from contaminated cannabis and cut revenue streams for organised crime gangs.

But legal cannabis cafes will not suddenly spring up all over the country.

A ferocious debate about decriminalising cannabis has been raging for years in Germany, with doctors’ groups expressing concerns for young people and conservatives saying that liberalisation will fuel drug use.

After a stormy session on Friday in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, the vote was eventually passed by 407 votes to 226.

Simone Borchardt of the opposition conservative CDU told MPs that the government had gone ahead with its “completely unnecessary, confused law” regardless of warnings from doctors, police and psychotherapists.

But Mr Lauterbach said the current situation was no longer tenable: “The number of consumers aged between 18 and 25 has doubled in the past 10 years.”

After the vote he said the law would “dry out the black market” and fix “a failed drug policy”.

As so often in Germany, the law approved by MPs is complicated.

Smoking cannabis in some areas, such as near schools and sports grounds, will still be illegal. Crucially, the market will be strictly regulated so buying the drug will not be easy.

Original plans to allow licensed shops and pharmacies to sell cannabis have been scrapped over EU concerns that this could lead to a surge in drug exports.

Instead, non-commercial members’ clubs, dubbed “cannabis social clubs”, will grow and distribute a limited amount of the drug.

Each club will have an upper limit of 500 members, consuming cannabis onsite will not be allowed, and membership will only be available to German residents.

Growing your own cannabis will also be permitted, with up to three marijuana plants allowed per household.

This means that Germany could be in the paradoxical position of allowing possession of rather large amounts of the drug, while at the same time making it difficult to purchase.

Regular smokers would benefit, but occasional users would struggle to buy it legally and tourists would be excluded. Critics say this will simply fuel the black market.

Over the next few years, the government wants to assess the impact of the new law, and eventually introduce the licensed sale of cannabis.

But given how tortuous the debate has been so far, nothing is certain.

Source: BBC

Cameroon’s higher education and health authorities have decried the exodus of young graduates in the medical field to countries in the developed world – a situation that has put the country’s health sector at peril due to a shortage of highly skilled professionals.

According to Dr Manaouda Malachie, Cameroon’s minister of public health, there is a demand for health personnel in most parts of the country despites thousands of medical students graduating annually. The situation is alarming, necessitating urgent measures to halt the brain drain, he said.

“Many of our young graduate doctors are migrating to seek better work and financial incentives elsewhere, leaving our healthcare services in a predicament,” Malachie said in an address to health workers earlier in January.

He called for a halt to the crisis.

According to a report of the ministry of public health, about 30,000 healthcare practitioners are needed in Cameroon to align with the World Health Organization’s recommendation of one doctor to 10,000 people.

The report puts Cameroon’s current doctor-patient ratio at one doctor per 50,000 persons. It blames the shortage on the massive number of Cameroonian doctors who have been forced to travel abroad to seek better employment.

Greener pastures

Higher education authorities have repeatedly condemned the disappearance of young medical graduates.

Presiding over the graduation of some 600 medical doctors from the University of Yaoundé 1 at the end of last year, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, the minister of higher education, said statistics show that one-third of every graduating batch of young doctors abandon their jobs for greener pastures abroad no sooner have they begun work. He called on the graduates to show a sense of patriotism by serving their country with love and dedication.

“The country is in need of your services. I enjoin you not to follow in the footsteps of those who have abandoned their country to look for greener pastures elsewhere,” he told graduates.

This call was echoed by Dr Rodolphe Fonkoua, formerly a board member of the Cameroon Medical Council (CMC), and the newly elected council president.

“As professionals, we are called to respect medical ethics and laws related to medical professions, to serve selflessly and uphold professional standards. Abandoning service in your country after training should be discouraged,” Fonkoua said at the end of an extraordinary elective general meeting on 10 December 2023.

But, medical students in training say there’s a likelihood the trend will continue because of the absence of an enabling working environment.

Source: University World News

The world’s first routine vaccine programme against malaria has started in Cameroon, in a move projected to save thousands of children’s lives across Africa.

The symbolic first jab was given to a baby girl named Daniella at a health facility near Yaoundé on Monday.

Every year 600,000 people die of malaria in Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Children under five make up at least 80% of those deaths.

Cameroon is offering the RTS,S vaccine free of charge to all infants up to the age of six months old.

Patients require a total of four doses. Health officials say these will be given at the same time as other routine childhood vaccines to make it easier for parents.

It comes after successful pilot campaigns in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi – where the vaccine caused a 13% drop in malaria deaths in children of eligible age, says Unicef.

The jab is known to be effective in at least 36% of cases, according to US researchers, meaning it could save over one in three lives.

While the rollout is undoubtedly a relief and a life-saver, its relatively low efficacy rate means that it is not a “silver bullet”, argues Willis Akhwale at End Malaria Council Kenya.

But for medics it is an important additional tool in the fight against malaria alongside mosquito nets and malaria tablets. Using all three together potentially gives children 90% protection from malaria, one UK-led study estimates.

“We have a capacity to considerably reduce the number of cases and deaths from malaria and accelerate the elimination of the disease,” Cameroonian doctor Shalom Ndoula, who helped to lead the vaccine rollout in his country, told BBC Newsday.

Development of the RTS,S vaccine has taken 30 years of research by the British drug-maker GSK.

The World Health Organization, which approved the vaccine, hailed the launch in Cameroon as a historic moment in the global fight against the mosquito-borne disease.

There was another breakthrough earlier this month, when Cape Verde became the first sub-Saharan African country in 50 years to be officially declared malaria-free by the global health body.

‘Safe, effective and free’

Fears and doubts among some Cameroonians about the safety and efficacy of the doses have raised concerns about vaccine hesitancy.

“When people say we are being used as guinea pigs, that’s not particularly true,” Wilfred Fon Mbacham, who is a Cameroonian king and also a professor of public health biotechnology specialising in malaria, told BBC Newsday.

“We as scientists have to do much more to educate the public on what it is, and the benefits it has, so that we can calm their fears.”

Vaccination official Daniele Ekoto at Monday’s launch told the BBC she was reassuring mothers after administering doses to their children, insisting that “it’s a vaccine that’s safe, effective and free”.

But for others the benefits are obvious.

“I decided to vaccinate my child to avoid malaria. It’s a bad thing and when it affects a child, they can easily die,” one mother told the BBC at the same vaccination centre in Soa, near Yaoundé, where Monday’s launch happened.

In 2021, Africa accounted for 95% of malaria cases globally and about 96% of related deaths.

“I have prayed and waited all my life for this vaccine”, Mr Mbacham told the BBC.

The WHO says Cameroon records about six million malaria cases every year, with 4,000 deaths in health facilities – most of them children below five.

Six-month-old children in 42 districts with the greatest rates of morbidity and mortality will receive four doses until the age of two.

Twenty other countries aim to roll out the programme this year, according to the global vaccine alliance, Gavi. Among them are Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone.

There is already a big demand for doses, but only about 18 million are available for allocation before 2025, according to Gavi.

It falls short of what is needed by the countries the vaccine alliance has recommended for approval.

The anticipated rollout of a second jab – R21 – developed by Oxford University, is expected to significantly increase the number of doses available for use.

This is to be manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, which aims to make 100 million doses per year, so long as it successfully passes the regulatory approvals following its recommendation for use by the WHO last year.

Source: BBC

Some children with cancer are receiving a new type of drug treatment far less toxic than chemotherapy.

Arthur, 11, is one of the first to try it, at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, for his blood cancer.

His family calls the therapy “a little bit of sunshine”, since it worked without making Arthur feel much sicker.

And because it could be given on the go, rather than just in hospital, he spent more time at home with his family, enjoying more of what he loves.

He carried it with him in a rucksack – his “blina backpack”.

For Arthur, blinatumomab or blina was his only real option after his chemo had failed to clear all of his cancer and had left him very weak.

Blina is already licensed to treat adults with cancer – and experts hope to show it can safely help children too.

Some 20 centres around the UK are using it off-label for children with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL).

The drug is an immunotherapy that seeks out cancer cells so the body’s own immune system can recognise and destroy them.

And this death hunt is precisely targeted – healthy cells are untouched, unlike with chemo.

Source: BBC

Sanitation and health workers in Cameroon are disinfecting homes to kill bedbugs that have infested the central African state’s capital, Yaounde, and several towns and villages.

Government officials say the bloodsucking bugs are imported by travelers from Europe, where some countries are also experiencing infestation.

Cameroon residents say they are expecting teams from the central African state’s hygiene and sanitation service to come to their homes to help get rid of the bugs.

Fruit seller Kuffo Marilyne lives in Madagascar, a neighborhood in Yaounde. She said she first used insecticides to get rid of the bugs in her home, thinking they were little cockroaches. She said she was surprised when three of her children developed insomnia and experienced irritation after they were bitten by the insects.

Bedbug bites leave blisters or large rashes on the skin, health workers say.

Kuffo said she took her children to the hospital for treatment, but that a majority of her neighbors who also reported bedbugs in their homes are poor and unable to get their children medical care.

Nekesa stars again as Rising Starlets whip Angola in U20 World Cup qualifiersNekesa stars again as Rising Starlets whip Angola in U20 World Cup qualifiers

France denies reports of bedbugs on trainsFrance denies reports of bedbugs on trains

Cameroon’s government reported that huge numbers of bedbugs have infested homes in several poor Yaounde neighborhoods.

Cameron’s health ministry said the bugs come out at night to feed on human blood and often cause psychological distress, sleeping issues, anxiety and depression.

The government said it has dispatched several hundred sanitary and health workers to disinfect homes and kill the bugs.

Mariline Longue a medical staff member at the Cite Verte District Hospital in Yaounde, said more than 70% of people in some of Yaounde’s congested neighborhoods have reported bedbugs in their homes and shops.

Longue said 24 of the 30 houses they visited in Cameroon’s capital on Wednesday morning had huge numbers of bedbugs hidden in mattresses, cracks of bed frames, chairs and couches.

The government said besides Yaounde and the economic hub Douala, there are fears several other towns and villages have been infested.

Maritial Ayissi, a sanitation officer with the Yaounde City Council, said the bugs are coming from European countries.

Ayissi said it is unfortunate government officials did not take measures to protect borders when the Cameroon National Hygiene and Sanitation Association raised an alarm in September that people were coming in from Europe with bedbugs in their luggage.

He said many secondhand goods including mattresses, blankets and dresses that are imported by merchants from France in particular and sold in Cameroon have huge numbers of bedbugs hidden in them. Ayissi said the bugs have become increasingly resistant to chemical treatments after they disappeared from daily life more than 20 years ago.

Rights groups and civil society activists have expressed fears that the insects may turn up in neighboring states, including landlocked Chad and Central African Republic, that rely on Cameroon for most of their goods. More than 80% of goods imported to Chad and CAR from Europe pass through Cameroon’s Douala seaport.

Cameroon officials said they will disinfect airports and goods imported from Europe if reports about bedbugs being found in them are investigated and found true.

In September, France announced that travelers were posting photos and videos purportedly showing bedbugs in Paris’ local transport system, high-speed trains and at Charles de Gaulle airport, provoking a wave of panic.

The French government in October said there was no evidence of any resurgence of the biting irritants on public transport, but it did not dismiss reports the insects were found in some homes.

Source: VOA

Cameroon is currently plagued by viral conjunctivitis with the capital of Yaounde particularly affected, the country’s health authorities said on Sunday.

“A suspected epidemic of conjunctivitis is currently occurring in our country, with clusters in schools,” Minister of Public Health Manaouda Malachie said.

“I recommend that you observe public health measures and, above all, avoid rubbing your eyes with your hands. In case of complications, go to the hospital,” the minister added.

Ophthalmologists in the country have urged people to take hygienic measures such as washing hands with soap and water after treatment and applying cold compresses to the eyes.

Conjunctivitis, or pink eye, is an irritation or inflammation of the conjunctiva, which covers the white part of the eyeball. It is caused by allergies or bacterial or viral infections.

It can be highly contagious and is spread by contact with the eye secretions of an infected person. Symptoms of the disease include redness, itching, and tearing of the eyes. It can also cause discharge or crusting around the eyes.

Source: Xinhuanet

The German government approved a draft law Wednesday legalising the purchase and possession of cannabis for recreational use, with the health minister pushing back against criticism of the controversial plans.

The legislation would allow adults to possess up to 25 grams (0.9 ounces) of cannabis and grow up to three plants for personal use.

People would also be allowed to join non-profit “cannabis clubs” of up to 500 members where the drug can be legally cultivated and purchased.

The bill still needs to be approved by lawmakers in the German parliament, who return from their summer break on September 4.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach called the draft law “a turning point” in Germany’s attitude towards cannabis.

The more relaxed approach would crack down on the black market and drug-related crime, ease the burden on law enforcement and allow for safer consumption of marijuana, he said at a Berlin press conference.

Minors will still be prohibited from using the drug, and the government will launch a campaign warning of the health risks for young people especially, he added.

“The concept we’re presenting is one of controlled legalisation,” he told reporters.

“We want to limit consumption and make it safer,” Lauterbach said.

The proposed legislation is a flagship project of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left-led coalition and would leave Germany with one of the most liberal cannabis policies in Europe.

But the draft law is less ambitious than what was originally envisioned.

Plans to allow the widespread sale of cannabis in licensed stores were dropped in April after the European Commission raised concerns.

‘Irresponsible’

The current proposal has nevertheless run into strong opposition from conservative politicians, doctors and law enforcement officials.

Bavaria’s regional health minister Klaus Holetschek from the opposition, centre-right CDU party called the plans “irresponsible”. Examples from abroad had shown that liberalisation does little to curb the black market, he said.

The Professional Association of Pediatricians in Germany issued a joint statement with other youth healthcare associations “firmly” condemning the plans, saying they could encourage cannabis consumption among young people.

Police unions and judges have also criticised the legislation as too bureaucratic, fearing it will add more stress to the judicial system rather than relieving it.

Lauterbach said he welcomed the “controversial discussions” sparked by the plans, but said critics weren’t putting forward any solutions.

Decriminalising the drug while imposing a number of restrictions and spelling out the dangers of cannabis use “will work”, Lauterbach insisted.

The government’s public health campaign in particular will highlight the harmful impact of regular cannabis use on the still-developing brain of people under the age of 25, Lauterbach added, a topic he said was still “taboo” among parents and in schools.

The legislation also prohibits marijuana use within 200 metres (218 yards) of a school, youth organisation, playground, sports grounds or “cannabis club”.

If the bill goes through, the government aims to review the societal impact of the new legislation after four years.

A string of countries have already relaxed rules around cannabis use.

Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalise the production, distribution and consumption of marijuana in 2013.

In the United States, dozens of states including California have changed their laws in the past decade to allow people to light up.

Malta became the first European Union member to legalise recreational cannabis in 2021, while the Netherlands has tolerated the sale and use of cannabis in so-called coffee shops since the 1970s.

After studying the examples from other countries, Lauterbach said he was convinced the German plan in its current form was “the best attempt at cannabis legislation so far”.

Source: AFP