Chioma Umeha
A cholera outbreak in Cameroon has claimed at
least a dozen lives. Hundreds of people have been rushed to several hospitals
in the central African state.
It is feared some of the cases were imported from
Nigeria and may contaminate refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency,
according to Voanews.com reports.
Arabo Saidou, the highest government official in
charge of health in Cameroon’s north region says the first cases of cholera
were reported along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria two months ago.
He says the disease has continued to spread since
four cases of cholera were recorded in the northern Cameroon town of Mayo Oulo
that borders Nigeria on May 18. He says many people, especially children, have
been dying both in and out of hospitals.
In May, the Word Health Organization reported that
Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states had been experiencing recurrent
cholera outbreaks since February, with a total of 1,664 suspected cases and 31
deaths.
Many people from the three Nigerian states travel
to Cameroon for business. At least a hundred thousand are in Cameroon as
refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency, with over 90,000 at the Minawao
refugee camp.
Issac Bayoro, a Cameroonian epidemiologist working
in the Mokolo administrative area where the Minawao refugee camp is located
says they are educating refugees to respect hygiene norms and are also
screening Nigerians coming to the camp in a bid to protect not only the refugees
but their host communities.
He says many people continue to defecate in the
open air or in streams and river beds where both humans and animals go to find
water to drink thereby facilitating the spread of cholera.
He says hygiene is not respected as many people do
not wash their hands with soap as advised. He says people should stop trusting
the belief that an African is naturally vaccinated and cannot die of dirt.
Cameroon’s ministry of health indicated that the
disease quickly spread to Yaounde and Douala, major cities in the central
African state. The case reported in Yaounde was of a teenager who travelled to
Yaounde from northern Cameroon with his mother. He latter died in a hospital
according to the government.
Thomas Tawe, a university student and resident of
Yaounde says he fears cholera may spread rapidly in the city because just 30
percent of the population has access to good drinking water.
“In the city of Yaounde only those who can pay can
have water. When you go into the quarters (neighbourhoods) you see that people
are carrying water from unhygienic sources,” said Tawe. “If the water is
contaminated, automatically we will be contaminated.”
