Metro

Cameroon: Cholera kills 105, subsides in Buea, but Limbe, Tiko remain in spotlight

Published

1 year ago

April 7, 2022

The Director of the Cholera Unit at the Buea Hospital in Cameroon, Dr Martin Mokake, has hinted that the situation regarding the outbreak of Cholera has subsided for two straight weeks in the Buea region although towns like Limbe and Tiko remain in the spotlight with nearly 100 new infections in Cameroon.

Cheering news comes after Cameroon’s Health Minister, Manaouda Malachie, last week revealed that there has been an outbreak of cholera that has killed 29 people in the past week and 260 new have been recorded.

In total, there have been 4627 patients and 105 deaths since the recent cholera outbreak.

Cholera situation (March 23 to April 05, 2022): 226 new cases including 02 deaths distributed as follows:
• Littoral : 126 Cases and 02 deaths
• South-West: 100 Cases and 00 deaths.

Accumulated cases since the start of the epidemic:
• 4627 Cases
• 105 Deaths (Lethality: 2.3)

— Dr MANAOUDA MALACHIE (@DrManaouda) April 6, 2022

“The situation here has indeed stabilized, we have had many cases, we have had a cumulative 350 cases of patients who have been treated following this disease, and among them, we have had 6 deaths from cholera. At the moment we have 9 patients hospitalized because we released some of them this morning” said Dr. Martin Mokake.

“While the cholera pandemic situation seems to be improving here in Buea in the South West regional capital, towns like Limbe and Tiko remain in the spotlight with nearly 100 new infections as announced by the Cameroonian Minister of Public Health in a tweet between March 25 and April 5”.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera. Cholera remains a global threat to public health and an indicator of inequity and lack of social development. Researchers have estimated that every year, there are roughly 1.3 to 4.0 million cases, and 21 000 to 143 000 deaths worldwide due to cholera.

“At the beginning, many people believed in the idea that cholera does not exist, but when the epidemic really started to grow not only in Tiko, when they learnt that there are deaths in Buea, Limbe, they started to believe in the existence of cholera. Some of them were even forced to come here to the treatment centre, seeing their relatives in bad shape, vomiting, they were convinced that it exists”.

Another cause behind the outbreak is the glaring lack of toilets and drinking water for the population.

“Generally it is due to the poor quality of access to water and the deplorable sanitary conditions. The state of the toilets is really not good in Likomba and in the whole town of Tiko, some people don’t even have toilets, and they relieve themselves directly in streams, and the inhabitants depend on these streams to drink, and it’s so bad”, concluded Dr. Meguete Eposi.

Related Topics:Cameroon cholera Featured

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Metro

Sudan War: Gen. Al-Burhan says he’s ready for peace talks

Published

7 hours ago

September 23, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

Sudan’s Army Chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan says he is now open for peace talks that could bring the war in the country to an end.

Before the surprise announcement on Friday, Al-Burhan had maintained a non-compromising stance and had refused all entreaties to enter into negotiations with his former number two man and main rival, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the Rapid Support Force (RSF).

However, Al-Burhan, in a statement in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), said he had not sought military support on a recent regional tour and that his preference was for a peaceful solution to the conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions of civilians.

“Every war ends in peace, whether through negotiations or force. We are proceeding on those two paths, and our preferred path is the path of negotiations,” Al-Burhan said.

Al-Burhan added that he believed that talks by Saudi Arabia and the United States in Jeddah which were stalled could still succeed.

In recent weeks, Al-Burhan has made a series of foreign visits after remaining holed up in Sudan for the first few months of the war, often sending representatives for talks.

In one of his visits to Cairo, Egypt, the Army Chief had said the purpose was to seek solutions and not military support, though he had asked other states to block external help that he claimed the RSF was receiving.

“We asked our neighbors to help us monitor the borders to stop the flow of mercenaries,” he had said.

The Sudan war which broke out between the army and the RSF in April 15 over plans for a political transition and the integration of the RSF into the army, has seen thousands of civilians killed and millions of others forced to flee the country.

Several ceasefire agreements entered into by the warring factions have been breached with both sides trading blames on their culpability, while previous claims by both sides that they want peace have failed to stop bloodshed.

Metro

Nigeria’s Presidency apologises for UNGA goof

Published

12 hours ago

September 23, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

The Nigerian Presidency has apologised over a blunder it made when announcing that President Bola Tinubu was the first African leader to ring the bell at the close of trade at the National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System (NASDAQ) in the United States.

Tinubu had, on Wednesday, rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ headquarters in New York City on the sidelines of the 78th edition of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and used the opportunity to advance his foreign investment push in front of financial markets at the famous stock exchange.

“It’s a great honour for me to be here. I am happy to bring Nigeria to your doorsteps and I am honoured that we are here, today, with a bubbling Nigerian stock market that will evolve in the West African sub-region,” he said.

‘’The greatest economy in Africa is Nigeria. There is an immense opportunity in Nigeria, where you can invest your money without fear,” the president added.

Shortly after the ringing of the bell, the Presidency released a statement claiming that Tinubu had entered the history books as the first leader of an African country to get the honour of ringing the NASDAQ bell.

“In honour of President Bola Tinubu’s determined global push to aggressively attract foreign direct investment into Nigeria.

“The world’s second largest stock exchange, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System (NASDAQ), on Wednesday in the world’s financial capital, invited President Tinubu to ring the closing bell. Making him the first African President to ever receive the honour,” the statement, issued by presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale said.

However, following a backlash, and fact-finding by Nigerians and media outlets that revealed that Tinubu was not the first African leader to ring the bell, the presidency, in a statement on Friday, retracted its claim and tendered an apology.

In the apology issued by Ngelale, the presidency said it later found out that a former African leader had previously rung the bell at NASDAQ, thereby debunking the initial claim of Tinubu’s historic achievement.

“We inadvertently referred to President Bola Tinubu as the first African leader to ring the bell at NASDAQ on Wednesday in New York, based on the information provided by a third-party event organiser.

“We have since found out that this information was/is incorrect as a former African leader has indeed had the privilege. This error is sincerely regretted,” the statement said.