(NewsWatch
Cameroon)-The upsurge of malaria in the Far North
region has been attributed to the people not using mosquito nets. In a meeting
with health officials of the region chaired by Andre Mama Fouda, the Minister
of Public Health, it was disclosed that only 30 percent of the population use
the mosquito bed net which is one of the weapons of choice against malaria.
Mama Fouda confirmed that close to 1000 persons have
died and over 200 000 cases of the endemic disease have been recorded.
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| Far Northerners Ignore Mosquito Bed Nets |
Health structures in the region are too small to
contain the huge influx of patients causing others to receive treatment sleeping
under trees and on bare floors in hospitals.
Malaria remains the greatest health problem in
Cameroon and Africa South of the Sahara as a whole.
The statistics of the malaria scourge on the
continent are startling. It is said that malaria kills one person on the
continent every 30 seconds and cripples so many of its youth. Yearly, between
350 and 500 million people are infected with malaria, and over one million die
from the disease. Economically, malaria has remained the bane of Africans as it
has stunted the growth of most economies with the resultant effect of
widespread poverty.
In Cameroon, the statistics are scaring. Malaria is
the major public health problem that is responsible for 30 percent of
admissions in hospitals and 45 percent deaths in health units. It also
represents 42 percent of the morbidity of children aged less than five. 26
percent of sick leaves by civil servants and other workers in the country are
also due to malaria, while households lose 40 percent of their annual incomes
to the treatment of the disease.
This bleak situation has been accentuated over the
years by the overwhelming poverty in the country which makes it difficult for
most people to effectively treat themselves.
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