St. Patrick's Day in Cameroon

Health Services in Cameroon

I hear of a constant stream of deaths of relatives of friends and colleagues and in many cases lack of money for diagnosis and remedies seems to be the deciding factor. Also many people live far out in the bush and there is no possibility of getting to a health centre for a large part of the year because of the rains. However, getting to a health centre or hospital here does not always have a positive outcome.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, I went with a friend to visit his mother who was in a health centre in Pouss. She was clearly in a bad way and they were unable to diagnose her illness. The health centre has one nurse and no doctor. We brought her to the health centre in Maga where there is a doctor (or rather there was at that time but he has now gone to Belgium for a year’s training). There they diagnosed malaria. It is hard to understand why this was not possible in Pouss, given that it is by far the most common ailment here and most people suffer from it at least once a year. Everything has to be paid for, so we paid for the consultation and the medicines, and we also brought her meals which are not supplied here. She recovered but I think that if we had left her in Pouss she would have died.

Some months later the same friend became ill and went to the health centre in Maga, where they diagnosed malaria. He took the remedies which they prescribed but became extremely sick and I thought he was going to die. I brought him to a hospital in Maroua where they prescribed different remedies and said that what was prescribed in Maga was the main cause of his problems. Once he changed to the new remedies he recovered quickly.

Another friend had a sore eye. She went to the hospital in Maroua where they prescribed remedies which did not produce an improvement. Indeed her condition worsened. I gave her money to go to Douala, the industrial capital, a four-day round trip costing around twice her month’s salary as a nurse. Even if the trip was affordable she could not have paid for it since her salary was eight months in arrears. In Douala they said that the remedies prescribed in Maroua were adding to her problem. When she changed to the new remedies her eye improved quickly.

A volunteer in Maroua became ill. She went to the hospital many times and they diagnosed many ailments, including malaria and typhoid. The remedies that they prescribed did not produce an improvement (it is not unusual for them to give treatment for several illnesses without knowing which one, if any, the patient suffers from). She went to a hospital inYaounde, the capital city, but despite efforts there her condition worsened. VSO flew her to Canada, where she got effective treatment and she has since returned to Cameroon.

These are just a sample of instances where the health services were found wanting.

The previous minister for health is in prison having been convicted of pocketing huge amounts of money intended for health services.