(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.
|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.