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Cameroon: Journalists Schooled on Malaria Treatment
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
16 May 2008
Posted to the web 16 May 2008
Brenda Yufeh
The two-day workshop was organised by the Centre Provincial Unit for Roll Back Malaria.
For two days journalists from the public and private media have been sensitised on the dissemination of information on the new treatment of malaria in Cameroon. Organised by the Unit for Roll Back Malaria in the Centre Province, the workshop which took place from May 13-14 in Yaounde, aimed at schooling media professionals on the proper treatment of malaria in health facilities The most recent malaria treatment the Artemisnin Based Combined Therapy (ACT) - has been prioritized and subsidized by the Ministry of Public Health since 2004 in the face of resistance of the plasmodium to the mono therapy.
Besides briefing pressmen on the history of how Cameroon adopted the use of ACT as the effective drugs to treat simple malaria, Dr Albert Bilounga, Chief of the Centre Provincial Unit for Roll Back Malaria, says before the proper treatment of malaria in any health unit, a laboratory diagnosis must take place to determine the quality of plasmodium in the patient's blood system. Once the test confirms the presence of the malaria parasite, Dr. Bilounga says the appropriate drugs-that are artesunate-amodiaquine and the artemether -lumefantrine (coartem) can be prescribed since they have a well defined dosage which is in function to age and weight of the patient.
But when can ACT be taken? While noting that the drugs are swallowed with water after a meal in the case of simple malaria, health experts insist that those who have allergy to one of the drugs as well as pregnant women and children with body weight of less than five kilograms must not be administered artemether lumefantrine. Malaria experts also note that ACT has been available in all public health facilities since February 19th, 2007. It is also found in mission hospitals and health centres. Information from the Centre Provincial Unit for Roll Back Malaria also indicates that ACT will soon be found in community health facilities of every village in the country. To this effect, more that 15,000 community health workers have been trained to handle cases of simple malaria. Mrs Josette Paga of the Centre Provincial Unit of Roll Back Malaria says thanks to a subvention by the Global Fund for the Fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the treatment of simple malaria with ACT in Cameroon is between CFA 140 to 1000 in public hospitals, pharmacies and non-profit making facilities. By the end of the workshop, media professionals had reinforced their capacity to better disseminate information on the treatment of simple malaria in Cameroon.
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