Cameroon

Cholera Epidemic Persists in Cameroon

Publication Date

Cholera Epidemic Persists in Cameroon

Publication Date

BEFANG, CAMEROON – Befang, a small village in the Menchum division of the Northwest region of Cameroon, is still feeling the pangs of the ongoing cholera outbreaks that began here in 2010.

Beatrice Ngea, 25, recounts her experience in this village during the outbreak there this year.

“During the outbreak, I saw many people die,” she says. “At first, we thought it was just running stomach [watery stools]. Before medical intervention, many people had already died.”

She says her neighbor was among the deceased.

“I can clearly remember how my neighbor died, leaving behind four children,” she says. “She first complained of a noisy stomach and later [of] watery stool and vomiting.”

She says the community tried to treat her, but it was no use.

“She was treated with some local concoctions,” Ngea says. “After 24 hours, she became extremely weak and pale, but everyone thought she will be fine with the concoctions. Surprisingly, she died in the hands of her eldest child, who was barely 9 years old.”

She says others died, too.

“I also remember another case of a 5-year-old girl who was rushed to the hospital but died few hours after treatment was commenced,” she says.

Still, others here have managed to survive when treatment was administered at the onset of symptoms.

“A few victims who were rushed to the hospital at the initial stage of the sickness survived,” she says.

Residents say a lack of potable drinking water makes the threat of cholera constant. Doctors say that survival depends on the speed of treatment, which poses challenges to health workers here because cholera is contagious and many people don’t seek help until it’s too late. The government and nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, have been working to control outbreaks across the country through various campaigns.

Cholera is an infection caused by contaminated food or water, according to the World Health Organization. Victims suffer from diarrhea, which can lead to severe dehydration and death without prompt treatment. 

Since the second half of 2010, Cameroon has been plagued by its most serious cholera outbreak since 2004, says Dr. Sama Julius, who serves as focal point cholera control at the Northwest Regional Delegation of Public Health. The Ministry of Public Health has detected cholera cases in 103 out of the country’s 179 health districts.

The cholera saga began in May 2010 in the northern parts of the country, where 70 percent of the population has no access to potable drinking water, and later spread to other parts of the country, Julius says. In 2010, 10,759 people had cholera, and 359 died in Cameroon. In 2011 so far, nine districts out of 18 in the Northwest region have had cholera cases, with 141 people contaminated and nine dying, though government statistics reflect lower numbers than international reports. International reports suggest that at least 500 people have died of cholera, and 13,000 cases have been reported this year.

Although 92 percent of people in Cameroon’s urban areas use an improved drinking-water source, only half of rural residents do, according to UNICEF.

Philomen Zih, a resident of the Damas neighborhood in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, says she and her family have to drink well water because of the absence of pipe-borne water in their locality. She says they boil the water, but it is still dirty, leading to health problems and risks of infection.

“I have had to treat my 10-months-old son of diarrhea about six times since his birth,” Zih says. “I thank God we have not been killed by cholera, but what can we do? We must drink water, and we cannot afford bottled water, so we have to keep drinking boiled well water while praying for God to spare us from cholera.”

One of Zih’s neighbors, Queenta Chu, stands nearby. She swears she will never drink water from the well because of the huge, red maggots that live in the ground beneath it. She says she prefers to use the well water only for cooking. She collects her drinking water when it rains, and during the dry season, she buys drinking water from a rich neighbor who she says has a large water tank.

The lack of potable sources of water continues to be a challenge for Cameroonians in both urban and rural areas and has caused cholera cases to soar during the past year.

Dr. Fomah Monoh, a medical doctor at Mankon Integrated Health Center, says survival depends on the speed of treatment of cholera.

“Most of the victims seek medical attention when it is too late,” Monoh says. “Usually when early treatment is administered, the patients have a chance to survive.”

He says cholera is contagious so hospital workers must take special precautions.

“When we receive cholera cases, we put them in a separate room because the disease is highly contagious,” he says. “Special workers attend to them dressed in highly protected material.”

Monoh says that receiving cholera cases makes him tense because most of the patients end up dying. He says the best solution to the problem is prevention, and that health personnel have been focusing on educating the public on the need for improved hygiene.

Julius, of the Northwest Regional Delegation of Public Health, says the government recently launched a fight against cholera campaign, which involved the ministries of Health, Education, Territorial Administration and Decentralization, Commerce and many others. The government also provides free treatment for cholera victims. He says the government has implemented public education and sensitization initiatives to curb the spread of the infection that continues to ravage Cameroonians in rural areas.

Local councils have been carrying out door-to-door sensitization campaigns and distributing water purification tablets. NGOs and U.N. agencies have been actively collaborating with the government through local councils to end the epidemic.

Plan Cameroon, part of an international organization that advocates for children’s rights, is one NGO that has been active in the fight against the infection. The organization dispatches trained volunteers into the field with sensitization messages and water sterilization kits.