Malaria Resurgence in Northern Cameroon, Africa
byShiren Nzegge-Ekane- Thursday, November 20, 2014, 9:15 AM
It is only times like this that one can realize the challenges faced by public health officials in the fight against disease. Among these challenges is one seen in Northern Cameroon, Africa. Public health's success depend on information and aids from the government, be it local; state; or federal. In the northern part of one of the peaceful nation in Africa, malaria outbreak has surfaces, killing hundreds of people especially children. This number would have been reduced if the government hadn't lingered in notifying the public health officials as well as calling for international aid. Another challenge is poverty. This news article was retrieved from
According to Schneider (2014), assessment is the act of monitoring health status to identify community health problems (Schneider, 2014). However,if the public health officials are not informed, the health problems cannot be identified and people will perish. Identification of the outbreak is the first step that public health experts must execute in order to conquer the disease (Malaria). The Cameroon government, even though alerted by its citizens about the health issue, nothing was done. The issue was ignored and this has caused more death.
Malaria is a deadly disease that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2014), has taken with it 627,000 lives with 207 million cases (WHO, 2014). The causative agent of the malaria disease is a parasite called plasmodium. There are four species:Malariae,ovale, andfalcipariumandvivaxbeing the most common.Plasmodium falcipariumis the deadliest. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infection (NIAID) (2014), the parasite is transmitted when the female anopheles mosquito bites an individual and accidentally deposits the parasite (sporozoites) via its saliva during the process of blood-sucking (feeding) (CDC and NIAID, 2014). While in the blood stream, the parasite travels to the liver and attacks the hepatocytes, reproduce, matures into merozoites that attacks the blood cells and move to another stage (gametophyte) in the blood. In the blood, it causes symptoms like anemia, chill, high fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, and profuse sweating (high body temperature).
Another problem is poverty. The northern region of Cameroon is inhabited with poor people. A lot of public health's help was given to this region in the previous years. Most of the aid includes nets or tents, environmental cleanup of standing and slow running water that habit the metamorphic stages of the insects and more. However, the constant rain has made this useless as more breeding ground for the mosquitoes emerged. Also, because of the economic status of the people in this region, the nets are used for fishing to feed their family instead for its main purpose (preventing bite from mosquitoes). Instead of calling for international aid or alerting the public health officials, the president is selfishly celebrating his 31st year of power (CNN, 2013).Cohen et al. (2012), showed that it's because of this that resurgence of outbreaks especially malaria surfaces (Cohen et al., 2012).
Malaria has been in existence since the 17 century in Peru where the Jesuit Missionaries took with them to Europe the Cinchona tree bark that was used by the Peruans to fight malaria (Pfizer,2006). The ingredient (quinine) was extracted and used to make chloroquinine. However, as year passes, the parasite becomes resistant and this has resulted to another outbreak. And no matter how hard the public health officials tries to eradicate this deadly disease, obstacles like poverty and government policies in Northern Cameroon tend to slow the process.
Resources:
CNN.com.2013. Government criticized as malaria death spike in Cameroon. Available at:
CDC.gov. 2014. Malaria. Available at:
NIAID.gov.2014. Life Cycle of Malaria. Retrieved at:
Schneider.2014. Introduction to Public Health (4Ed)
Pfizer.2006. Mile Stones in Public Health
WHO.2014. Malaria. Available at:
Cohen M., Smith, Cotter, Ward, Yamey, Sabot, and Moonen.2012. Malaria Resurgence: A systematic review and assessment of is causes