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Revealed: Southern Cameroons suffering cholera epidemic

Revealed: Southern Cameroons suffering cholera epidemic

MANAOUDA Malachie, Minister for Health informed that so far 4,627 cholera cases with 105 deaths have been reported throughout the country, with the greatest impact in the English-speaking regions of Bamenda and Buea.

Cholera was accentuated by the spread of Covid-19. It is a shocking situation in a disturbed state like ours. Cameroon should review its national health policy in case of crisis, he said.

The disease aggravates the situation in the area, which since 2017 has been experiencing a deadly conflict rooted in colonization by the French and British governments, and the two languages that came with it, French and English.

The army is currently fighting separatist forces in the two English-speaking regions in the northwest and southwest of the country, which has suffered from that cause about 3,000 dead and more than 730,000 displaced civilians. To contain cholera, a vaccination campaign was launched on April 8, during which health workers are going door-to-door to encourage people to get vaccinated.

The wells, often contaminated due to lack of hygiene, have also been ordered to be closed.

Culled from PLenglish

WHO reports more than 3.5-fold increase in cholera cases in Cameroon

WHO reports more than 3.5-fold increase in cholera cases in Cameroon

The cholera outbreak in Cameroon has escalated in recent weeks with a more than 3.5-fold increase between weeks 10 and 12 (ending 27 March 2022) and with further geographical spread to more regions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Cameroon began experiencing increasing reports of cholera since 2021 and declared an outbreak in the last week of October 2021.

In the past five months, at total of 3,407 cases and 83 deaths (CFR 2.4%) have been reported. Currently, there are five regions with active outbreaks including Centre, Littoral, North, South, and South-West.

“Cholera has been moving from one district to the next, from maritime districts to the mainland districts,” says Dr Filbert Eko Eko, Public Health Delegate for South-West Region.

“The South West Region is one of the border regions to Nigeria and it’s also facing a humanitarian crises. Trans-border movement is so frequent, and it is difficult to control the movement of people between Nigeria and Cameroon. For this reason, it is also difficult to check their health status. If we could control the trans-border movement, it would be easier for us,” Dr Eko Eko says.

Poor healthcare seeking remains a challenge as many people prefer to get treatment from traditional healers due to the lack of transportation.

Dr Eko Eko says, “The cholera epidemic usually starts during the dry season, which is when there are problems with water. We need to provide potable water to the community. We also need to check their sanitary conditions, especially fecal disposal, while also ensuring that the water they drink is healthy enough.”

In 2021, only sporadic cases were reported for the majority of the year, but cases increased at the end of October (week 43 of 2021).

Source: Outbreaknewstoday

Douala: U.S. Ambassador Visits Laquintinie Hospital to Highlight Washington’s Health Assistance

Douala: U.S. Ambassador Visits Laquintinie Hospital to Highlight Washington’s Health Assistance

Ambassador Christopher J. Lamora visited Laquintinie Hospital in Douala, accompanied by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Country Director Dr. Emily Kainne Dokubo. In partnership with Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health, CDC provides care and treatment services through implementing partners in 308 facilities across all 10 regions of the country. Through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC has supported clinical and laboratory services at Laquintinie Hospital since 2009.  Over the past three years, CDC has invested over $975,000 (588 million FCFA) to strengthen the hospital’s HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for all people living with HIV, including children, adolescents, adults, and key and vulnerable populations.

Laquintinie Hospital recently celebrated its 90th anniversary and now serves as the reference hospital in Littoral Region.  Under the leadership of Professor Noel Essomba, the hospital has approximately 910 beds managed by over 1300 staff, including 46 General Physicians and 113 Specialists, and receives more than 80,000 patients for consultations per year.  Established in 1988, the HIV Treatment Center serves as a model for decentralization of antiretroviral treatment in Cameroon.  Approximately, 5,400 people living with HIV receive treatment through CDC/PEPFAR support.  Also, through PEPFAR, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supports a continuum of care for key and priority populations and orphans and vulnerable children, and funds procurement and delivery of antiretroviral drugs and HIV laboratory reagents and supplies.  Additionally, USAID supports community-led monitoring to ensure the hospital’s compliance with the government policy to eliminate HIV user fees at service delivery points.

Source: Tdpelmedia

Hollywood: Will Smith banned from attending Oscars for 10 years after slapping Chris Rock

Hollywood: Will Smith banned from attending Oscars for 10 years after slapping Chris Rock

Hollywood’s film academy on Friday said its board of governors banned Will Smith from any of its events, including the Oscars, for 10 years after the best actor winner slapped presenter Chris Rock on stage at the Academy Awards ceremony.

“The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year,” Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President David Rubin and Chief Executive Dawn Hudson said in a statement.

“However, those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage.”

In a statement, Smith said, “I accept and respect the Academy’s decision.” The actor had resigned from the academy on April 1 and has issued statements apologizing to Rock, the Oscars producers, nominees  and viewers.

At the March 27 televised ceremony, Smith strode up to the stage after comedian Rock made a joke about the appearance of the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, then smacked Rock across the face.

Less than an hour later, Smith gave a tearful speech on stage as he accepted the best actor award for his role in “King Richard.” After the ceremony, he was seen dancing at Vanity Fair’s annual post-Oscars party.

Rock’s joke about Pinkett Smith made a reference to the 1997 film “G.I. Jane” in which actress Demi Moore shaved her head. It was unclear whether Rock was aware that she has a condition that causes hair loss.

Source: REUTERS

Yaoundé: Two journalists, Equinox TV programme suspended in widening of media crackdown

Yaoundé: Two journalists, Equinox TV programme suspended in widening of media crackdown

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a decision by Cameroon’s National Communication Council (CNC) to suspend the head of one of the country’s most outspoken and popular TV channels, one of its star presenters, and one of its leading current affairs programmes for a month. The suspensions are arbitrary and unjustified, and constitute a serious press freedom violation, RSF said.

The one-month suspensions of Equinoxe TV director Sévérin Tchounkeu, presenter Cédric Noufele and the programme “Droit de Réponse” (Right of Reply) were announced by the media regulator on 1 April.

Alluding to a teachers’ strike, the CNC accused Equinoxe TV of “failing to manage” a guest whose comments were “liable to amplify a potentially explosive social demand.” It also accused Tchounkeu of making offensive comments about state institutions, and Noufele of broadcasting an amateur video that was not related to the subject discussed – an error that the TV channel had nonetheless acknowledged and repeatedly corrected.

“We condemns these suspensions, which have no serious grounds and clearly aim to sanction a media for its coverage of a strike that embarrasses the authorities,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “This is nothing less than an attack on journalism and the right to news and information, which this regulator is supposed to protect. We call on the CNC, which is not in the habit of imposing arbitrary sanctions, to review this decision.”

Cameroonian journalists are often subjected to judicial harassment, arbitrary detention and sometimes very violent physical attacks, but politically motivated media suspensions are relatively rare. Equinoxe TV has been summoned before the CNC several times in the past but has not been suspended in recent years.

Cameroon is ranked 135th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.

Culled from RSF

Doctors Without Borders halts operations in Southern Cameroons

Doctors Without Borders halts operations in Southern Cameroons

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced Tuesday the suspension of its humanitarian activities in an English-speaking area of Cameroon due to the detention four local employees accused by local authorities of “complicity” with separatists.

“MSF has officially announces the suspension of its humanitarian activities in the South West region of Cameroon today”, the NGO wrote in a statement Tuesday. Three months after the arrest and detention of four members of its staff in connection with the organization’s “medical work”, the organisation decided to stop its work in one of the two English-speaking regions in the grip of a bloody separatist conflict.

MSF said it had ceased its activities “as of March 29, in order to focus on securing the safe release of its staff”. This is the first time MSF has publicly mentioned the arrests, said Scheherazade Bouabid, MSF’s head of communications for Central and West Africa.

At the end of 2020, the Cameroonian government suspended MSF operations in the northwest, the country’s second largest English-speaking region, accusing its medical teams of “collusion” with armed separatist groups.

4 year-long conflict

In these two regions, where most of the English-speaking minority lives in a predominantly French-speaking country ruled with an iron fist for nearly 40 years by 89-year-old Paul Biya, the army and separatist groups have been clashing almost daily for five years.

Civilians are caught in the middle and are victims of abuses committed by both sides, according to international NGOs and the UN. The conflict has left more than 6,000 people dead and forced more than a million to flee their homes.

“We are in an untenable position: on the one hand, we are providing needed medical assistance; on the other hand, the people providing that assistance are at risk of being prosecuted for their medical activities,” said Sylvain Groulx, MSF’s head of programs in Central Africa, quoted in the statement.

“We need the conditions in place to allow us to carry out our activities in a safe and secure environment, so that we can fulfill our obligations to patients,” he added, arguing that MSF remains open to dialogue with the Cameroonian authorities to resume its activities.

Contacted by AFP, the Cameroonian authorities had not reacted Tuesday afternoon. The four employees arrested are all Cameroonian, including a 33-year-old nurse and a 41-year-old driver.

“On December 27, 2021, two MSF staff members were arrested after referring a patient with a gunshot wound whose condition required urgent assistance,” the NGO reported, adding that two other MSF staff members were also arrested in the following weeks. They have since been detained in Buea, the capital of the southwest, as part of an “investigation into complicity in secessionism.”

Source: AFP

6,000 people infected in cholera outbreak in Cameroon

6,000 people infected in cholera outbreak in Cameroon

At least 6,000 people have been infected with cholera and close to 100 others have died from the disease in Cameroon which is struggling to contain an outbreak of the water-borne disease.

According to the country’s public health ministry, the number of cholera patients received in hospitals was increasing daily. Officials have blamed a shortage of clean drinking water in towns and villages due to a long dry season for the outbreak.

An official with the ministry noted that cholera had spread to more than 40 percent of major towns, including the capital Yaoundé, the economic capital Douala, and western commercial towns such as Buea, Limbe and Bafoussam.

Linda Esso, director of epidemics and pandemics at the ministry, said several villages had reported cholera cases and the entire country was at risk from the outbreak.

The public health chief of Limbe in Cameroon’s Southwest region, Filbert Eko, said the area was the worst affected in the central African country recording more than 800 cases since February.

200 out of 300 patients reportedly had been treated and discharged from a government hospital in Limbe in just the last seven days.

Eko added that the outbreak prompted authorities to quarantine patients to prevent the disease from spreading further.

“The treatment center will be separated from the hospital and from the public. No outsider will be allowed to have access to the patients,” Eko said.

“We don’t want contact between families and the patients. We are taking [efforts] upon ourselves, searching for resources to feed these patients free of charge.”

President Paul Biya has deployed the ministers of water and health to assess the situation in affected regions.

The Public Health Minister, Manaouda Malachie, cautioned that Douala’s New Bell Prison had become an epicenter of the outbreak but did not give any details on whether any inmates had been infected or died from the disease.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Water Gaston Eloundou Essomba directed the Cameroon Water Distribution Company, the body in charge of water distribution in the country, to provide clean water to villages and towns affected by the outbreak.

Cameroon usually suffers from cholera outbreaks with one of the worst such incidents occurring in 2011 when more than 23,000 people were infected and 800 others died.

Source: Africa.cgtn

President Biden to receive second Covid booster shot

President Biden to receive second Covid booster shot

President Joe Biden will receive a second Covid-19 vaccine booster shot on Wednesday, the White House said.

Biden, 79, will get the injection after he addresses the public on a new government website, COVID.gov, aimed at assisting efforts to expand the pandemic response, including information about testing and vaccinations.

“The shot will be administered by a member of the White House Medical Unit,” a spokesman said.

Biden will be getting the shot a day after the United States authorized a fourth dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for people 50 and older, as authorities warn of a possible new wave driven by the BA.2 variant.

The Food and Drug Administration said it based its decision on emerging evidence that an additional booster, given four months after the last, improved protection against severe Covid and wasn’t associated with new safety concerns.

Two of Biden’s spokeswomen have recently tested positive for Covid: Jen Psaki, who canceled her planned travel to Europe with the president as a result, and Psaki’s deputy Karine Jean-Pierre, who tested positive right after the high-profile trip.

The White House stressed in both cases that the president, since he is vaccinated and boosted, was not in danger.

The twin announcements were the latest in a string of Covid cases among people who have spent time with Biden or people in his circle.

Earlier this month, Biden attended a dinner in Washington where he met with Ireland’s prime minister, Micheal Martin, who abruptly left the gala after being informed of a positive Covid test.

The White House said Biden had not spent enough time with Martin to be at risk.

Shortly before Martin’s case, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, who regularly sees Biden, also tested positive for Covid-19.

Source: AFP

Comedians being assaulted on stage

Comedians being assaulted on stage

Comedians being assaulted on stage, as Chris Rock experienced at the hands of Will Smith during the Oscars on Sunday night, is extremely rare — but not unheard of.

An attack often requires something more offensive than Rock’s gag about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, appearing in “GI Jane 2” (a reference to her lack of hair, caused by alopecia).

In 1991 at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival, infamously offensive British comedian Jerry Sadowitz opened his set with the line: “Hello Moosefuckers. I tell you why I hate Canada: half of you speak French and the other half let them.”

An audience member promptly climbed the stage and knocked him out cold.

Or there was the time that Australian comic Jim Jefferies was attacked by a man at the Manchester Comedy Store in 2007 in northwest England.

It appeared the man had not liked a line Jefferies used against another, unrelated heckler: “I’m going to leave you alone now, just like your dad did. Too bad your uncle didn’t.”

Jefferies, like Rock, managed to regain his composure and complete his set, styling out the shock by saying: “If you enjoyed my show and you want to see more of me, I’ll be getting my head kicked in in the alleyway.”

Comedians often face verbal abuse — for which they are well-trained — but security normally steps in before things turn violent.

That was decidedly not the case with Smith, who was allowed to return to his seat after slapping Rock. He was then given an Oscar for best actor and treated to a standing ovation.

Some comedians saw that as setting a dangerous precedent.

Comedy boycott?

“Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters,” tweeted US stand-up Kathy Griffin.

For his part, Jefferies took to Instagram on Monday to say that comedians should boycott the Oscars, telling actors to “host their own show after the way they just treated Chris”.

Some have come to Smith’s defence. US stand-up and actress Tiffany Haddish tweeted: “He protected his wife. And that’s what a man is supposed to do.”

But many saw an act of unhinged madness, and evidence of rampant celebrity privilege.

“A multi-millionaire who can’t take a joke — that’s a bad look,” British comic Fin Taylor, known for his edgy material, told AFP.

“OK, your wife’s having a bad time. You know who’s having an even worse time? People with alopecia who don’t also have tens of millions of dollars.”

Taylor said jokes inevitably came at someone’s expense and even if Rock’s joke was widely considered a cheap crack, it was hardly a reason for assault.

“For a start, this is TV so he probably didn’t even write the joke,” said Taylor.

“But even if no one had laughed, that isn’t a licence to go punch him. I still think Will Smith is pathetic.

“Everyone has something that is too close to the bone for them — mine will be different to yours or Jada Pinkett-Smith. If I have to worry about everyone’s problem in a room, I would never say anything,” he added.

There has been much debate in recent years as to whether so-called cancel culture has forced comedians to tone down their material.

Cancel culture?

Rock is among those who have banned phones at their shows to prevent people sharing his material online.

But Taylor said cancel culture was not a real problem.

“Comics are just as rude and outspoken as they have always,” he said.

“But what sometimes happens is you have a room with 400 people, and everyone laughs at a joke, but one person goes home and tweets that their particular issue has been triggered.

“And that gets traction because they’re followed by people with a similar issue, and it makes it seem to journalists that there is a problem.”

In fact, the opposite is true, he said, since the internet has allowed comics to build a fan base without relying on traditional gatekeepers.

“There’s this massive notion of being cancelled, but cancelled from what? No one watches TV anymore.”

Is Taylor more worried about being knocked out, then?

“If I didn’t want to piss people off, I wouldn’t be a comedian,” he said.

“I am, as yet, un-lamped. But I’m sure it will happen one day.”

Source: AFP

Biya regime starts cholera vaccinations as outbreak kills 62 since October

Biya regime starts cholera vaccinations as outbreak kills 62 since October

An outbreak of cholera in Cameroon has claimed 62 lives since October, prompting the central African nation to vaccinate people against the water-borne disease.

A donation of 800,000 vaccines from the World Health Organization allowed the country to start a campaign on March 16, Health Minister Manouada Malachie said in a tweet Friday.

More than 2,000 cases have been reported since the epidemic started, with 29 deaths in the week leading up to March 22 alone, he said. The new cases were in South West, Littoral and Center regions, the country’s main cocoa-growing regions. The capital, Yaounde, has also recorded cases, reporting two deaths in recent days.

Source: Bloomberg

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