ABSTRACT
Background: The proportion of COVID-19 vaccination in Africa countries remains lower than other low and middle-income countries around the world. This rate is much lower in sub-Saharan Africa especially Cameroon. The low rate among these countries is attributed to vaccine hesitancy, mainly due to misinformation about vaccine origin, efficacy, and safety and the use of local herbs. Methods: From January to April 2022, we gathered latest experiences and opinions on four vaccine hesitancy-related areas, namely policies, perceived low risk, religious factors and use of local herbs in Cameroon in particular and some selected African countries in general;from published information in the literature. Results and recommended local solutions: The report mentions that political influences, religious beliefs and low perceived risk exists, vaccine safety and effectiveness and consumption of local herbs do contribute to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, collectively. Systematically monitoring the drivers of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, implementing tailored interventions promoting vaccine acceptance, and evaluating the impact of these interventions reduce vaccine hesitancy drastically.
ABSTRACT
In the context of a developing country like Cameroon characterized by the scarcity of financial resources and the appearance of Covid-19, this article shows that this pandemic was not more important than the pre-existing health problems to the point of giving it more importance in funding compared to strengthening the health system. The theoretical elasticity model of the poverty rate to growth is used to estimate the impact of Covid-19 and the incidence of impoverishing health expenditure is used for the impact of common diseases. It is estimated through direct health payments that common diseases push about 340,865 people into extreme poverty annually. The Covid-19, through the loss of growth generated between 4.8 and 6.6 points according to the optimistic or pessimistic scenarios, would impoverish between 224,193 and 398,565 people: impact on the number of poor ranging from 0.7 to 1.2 times that of all common diseases, i.e., equivalent on average, but sensitive to the speed of spread of the virus and the duration of the crisis while the impact of common diseases is structural and linked to the poorly performing health system. The solutions proposed are endogenous and linked to the impact mechanisms.
ABSTRACT
Oilseeds are grown mainly for the extraction of vegetable oils and for its by-products needed in livestock feed and in other industrial uses. The oils obtained from them are becoming a staple food used in daily cooking in several countries, and as a result the world demand is constantly increasing. This situation, combined with the exponential increase in the world population and other cyclical factors, is leading to a surge pricing, especially in importing countries. This increase in prices is fueled by soaring oil prices and disruption in supplies following Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions in the Black Sea. Morocco is directly impacted by these fluctuations given that the country imports almost its total needs in vegetable oils, oilseeds and meals. The high dependence on imported vegetable oils and oilseed products has a detrimental effect on the economy of Morocco and weighs heavily on the country's trade balance. Considering their increasingly important role in society, the development of a local oilseed sector to reduce Morocco's dependence on imports and cope with the vagaries of global markets has never been more topical in the current context of sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty.
ABSTRACT
This brief review, which was presented as an introduction to the CAS/IAP/NASCA Workshop on scientific evidence response to the COVID-19 in Cameroon and Africa, covers the classification of viruses based on the coding nucleic acid type, the structure of the genomes of corona viruses that have infected humans in the 21st century ie SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. It is recalled that SARS-CoV-2 has a genome size of 29.8 kb very similar to those of SARS-CoV (29.10 kb) and MERS-CoV (30.1kb). The functions of main proteins featuring on surface the SARS-COV-2, namely, spike (S), membrane (M) and the envelope (E) protein as well as the nucleocapsid (N) protein that is expressed in the core of the viral particle were described. An overview of the pathogenesis showed that the three viruses cause similar symptoms, the most severe of them being the severe respiratory syndrome that could lead to death. A deep understanding of the roles of the viral proteins has facilitated the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and drugs to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The review also cites COVID-19 vaccines currently approved by the WHO as well as patent drugs in current usage and points out that none of these were developed in Africa, which is why local capacity has to be built to better combat the current and future pandemics.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 outbreak which started in 2019 in China, turned out to be a deadly, infectious worldwide pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 affects the respiratory system, symptoms including cough, fever and shortness of breath. Upon infection, there is an uncontrolled release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome, and even death. The shutdown of economies during the outbreak made acquisition of nutritious foods difficult, exposing the world to malnutrition. This was worse in underdeveloped countries where there is poor hygiene and poor healthcare systems. A good and balanced nutrition strengthens the immune system, with fruits and vegetables enhancing the anti-inflammatory responses and regulating chronic diseases which are risk factors for COVID-19. In Cameroon, decoctions against COVID-19 made from medicinal plants and foods were widely used. This included 'star yellow', a sauce formulated and used for its role in the control of the transmission of SARSCOV-2. Star yellow contains a combination of palm oil and limestone, which exposes viral RNA to zinc attacks. It also possesses anti-viral and antioxidant properties which inactivates the viral particles in the gut thus stopping the possible transmission of the SARSCOV-2 virus via faeces.
ABSTRACT
On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern and, in March 2020, began to characterize it as a pandemic in order to emphasize the gravity of the situation and urge all countries to take action in detecting infection and preventing spread. Unfortunately, there is no medication that has been approved by the FDA, gone through controlled studies and demonstrated an effect on the virus for this global pandemic. Although there are cures for illnesses and developments made by leaps and bounds in our day, the strongest and most effective weapon that society has against this virus is the prevention of its spread. The main points in preventing the spread in society are hand hygiene, social distancing, and quarantine. With increased testing capacity, detecting more COVID-19 positive patients in the community will also enable the reduction of secondary cases with stricter quarantine rules. Treatment with the use of plant extracts and vaccination are also control measures that are implemented in Cameroon. This review will focus on the prevention and control measures applied in Cameroon to combat the spread of the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
In the last two years, Cameroon has faced five waves of COVID-19, with its fourth wave of the B.1.1.529 Omicron variant in December 2021 and subsequently hosted the African Cup of Nation of Football Men's competition that gathered thousands of people from across the world in January 2022 with no increase in the number of cases/deaths. A fifth wave of BA.4, and BA.5 Omicron variants was seen in August 2022. The country as claimed 123 785 cases, 121 633 recovered and 1960 death by 30th September 2022. Despite a low vaccination coverage of 8.7% the country has seen a limited impact of COVID-19 as compared to the international prediction. The response of Cameroon focused in limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 in the population, reducing the morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 and limiting the socio economic impact of the COVID-19 in Cameroon. The contextualized Cameroonian response was based on an important epidemiologic surveillance relying on mass testing strategy and adaptative measure that ensure the continuity of the of planned mass gathering activities including hosting the African Cup of Nations of Football in the COVID-19 context and the continuity of education. While the COVID-19 has shown some weakness in the health system it has been an opportunity to show its resilience and the opportunity for strengthening the health system including the implementation of a genomic surveillance platform. The lessons learnt from COVID-19 including the importance of coordination through the Public Health Emergency Operating Centre will help the country to address the future public health emergencies and move toward cholera elimination by 2030.