Healthcare professionals from Cameroon mostly from North West extraction have ended another video conference on issues around the coronavirus pandemic in the NW region and Cameroon in general. Meeting this Saturday July 25, 2020 in what has been named the "Cameroon Town-hall meeting for Healthcare professionals",the healthcare professionals reflected on "the impact of COVID-19 on the health care system in Cameroon. Case study of HIV, TB, and Vaccination programs and other programs.
Screenshot of the Zoom session
Chaired by Dr Koma Kenne and Elvis NDASI, other professionals amongst them Dr Kingsley Che Soh North West Delegate for Public Health, Prof Fru Angwanfor of the mother and childcare reference hospital Yaounde, Prof Kenneth Yongabi Public Health Lecturer in Nigeria, Ferdinad Mukumba, Jerome Shilteh, Courage Kiwi, Calson Asanghan all agreed that it was important for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in the NW Region be void of political coloration.
Dr Kingsley Che Soh after presenting a situational analysis of the pandemic in the NW Region in one of his interventions expressed satisfaction with some activists (no name mentioned) who have made public calls for people in the North West Region to visit their health facility unlike before as corroborated by Prof Fru Angwafor when the insinuations made gave the impression that COVID-19 was distributed in hospitals. This they all agreed is helping to bring many to the hospital for testing and treating.
Though no specific protocol was said to be available for the treatment of people with conditions like diabetes, Prof Keneth Yongabi recommended a "fit for purpose care for COVID-19" which to him give reason for the use of hydroxichloroquin in managing the pandemic in the region due it's specificities despite no sufficient scientific justification from the west that it cures COVID-19.
Banner of the come together
Reflections also focused on the wearing of face masks, challenges and possibilities to improve on availability. It emerged from the reflection that there was need to look for ways to make the masks available and for people to effectively wear them. Dr Kingsley Che Soh agreed with others who said that many wear masks for fear of police repression even in the nation's capital but went on to appreciate structures like cultural and development associations citing Nkwen and Awing as well as Councils for doing a tremendous job in the distribution of face masks to their communities.
Prof Fru Angwafor has described the initiative as an uncommon learning opportunity for them who are back home inviting those who conceived the idea to consider the errors being made in the country as human assuring that the future is in the hands of the yound reason why they must build it now.
Many have also used the platform to appreciate the North West Regional delegate for Public Health for the job his doing in the region especially in the area of communication and sensitisation on the state of the pandemic in the NW Region.
Being in its 4th edition, the online town hall meeting has examined a wide range of issues amongst them, COVID-19 and the Cameroonian Experience: Prevention of a pandemic. (What can Cameroon Learn from the US lousy experience). African Traditional Medicine in COVID-19 management and the impact of COVID-19 on health workers' mental health, the existing pharmacological treatments, alternative medicines, ongoing clinical trials, mental health, and all other existing COVID-19 management models.
By Bakah Derick