Less than half the women in 57 developing countries are denied the right to say “no” to sex with their partners, to decide whether to use contraception, or to seek health care, a U.N. report said Wednesday.

The report by the U.N. Population Fund said the data covers only about one-quarter of the world’s countries, over half in Africa. But the findings “paint an alarming picture of the state of bodily autonomy for millions of women and girls” who don’t have the power to make choices about their bodies and their futures without fear or violence, it said.

The fund said only 55% of girls and women in the 57 countries are able to decide whether to have sex, whether to use contraception and when to seek health care such as sexual and reproductive health services.

“The denial of bodily autonomy is a violation of women and girls’ fundamental human rights that reinforces inequalities and perpetuates violence arising from gender discrimination,“ said the fund’s executive director, Dr. Natalia Kanem. “The fact that nearly half of women still cannot make their own decisions about whether or not to have sex, use contraception or seek health care should outrage us all.”

According to the report, “My Body Is My Own,” percentages vary across region.

While 76% of adolescent girls and women in east and southeast Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean can make decisions on sex, contraception and health care, less than 50% can in sub-Saharan Africa and central and south Asia, the report said.

There are also differences within regions. Citing one example, the report said that in three countries in sub-Saharan Africa — Mali, Niger and Senegal — less than 10% of adolescent girls and women control all three of those decisions.

Regional difference between countries on the three decisions are less pronounced elsewhere but still vary widely, ranging from 33% to 77% in central and south Asia, from 40% to 81% in east and southeast Asia, and from 59% to 87% in Latin America and the Caribbean, the report said.

The fund, which now calls itself the U.N.’s sexual and reproductive health agency, also cited inconsistencies within countries.

In Mali, for example, 77% of women take independent or joint decisions on contraception but just 22% are able to do the same when it comes to health care, the report said. In Ethiopia only 53% of women can say “no” to sex, while 94% can independently or jointly make decisions about contraception.

Kanem said in the forward to the report that many women are also denied the right to choose the person they marry, or the right time to have a child “because of race, sex, sexual orientation, age or ability.”

“Real, sustained progress largely depends on uprooting gender inequality and all forms of discrimination, and transforming the social and economic structures that maintain them,” she said. “In this, men must become allies.”

Source: Toronto Star

While Denmark in Europe has given up using the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Biya regime instead announced the acquisition of 400 thousand doses of the dangerous British vaccine.

Prime Minister Dion Ngute recently received 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from the Chinese government and now his Minister of Public Health has told the nation that 400,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine will be arriving on April 17.

The Danish government said it was abandoning the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 because of its “rare” but “serious” side effects. Denmark became the first EU member state to drop the British solution to the coronavirus.

Despite well informed opinions from the European Health regulator and the WHO in favour of AstraZeneca, the vaccination campaign in Denmark is continuing without the AstraZeneca vaccine, observed the director of the Danish National Health Agency, Søren Brostrøm, during a press conference.

However, Yaoundé which of late has been signing doggy business deals with UK authorities all in a bid to please the British and attract sympathy and cover-ups for crimes being committed by Cameroon government army soldiers in English speaking Cameroon had pleaded for the Russian vaccine before receiving 200,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm.

Yaoundé Covid-19 politics is indeed to please China, Russia and their British partner at the same time!

Thus, after the 200 thousand doses of Sinopharm vaccine, the Biya regime has now made it public that 400 thousand additional doses of the British vaccine is en route to Yaoundé. In May, at least one million doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik will also be in Cameroon.

Last Monday, the Francophone Minister of Public Health launched the vaccination campaign in front of the media in order to convince the most reluctant.

The suspension of AstraZeneca in Denmark adds to the reluctance of Cameroonians both in La Republique and in Southern Cameroons who are already mostly opposed to vaccination against Covid-19.

Citizens of the two Cameroons believe that it is necessary to return to natural plant-based treatments that have proven their worth, particularly traditional pharmacopoeia or African solutions.

According to a majority opinion in the divided country, the epidemiological situation of Covid-19 is not so alarming as to create any panic.

As at 9 April 2021, French Cameroun had 3386 active cases. Out of some 61,731 cumulative cases, 56,926 were cured and 919 died.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon on Monday launched the vaccination campaign against COVID-19, a day after receiving its first batch of vaccines donated by China.

The campaign started at the Specialized Covid-19 Care Centre in the capital Yaounde, with the country’s Minister of Public Health Malachie Manaouda being the first to take the vaccine.

“I feel good. There is no problem,” Manaouda said shortly after he received the first shot with the presence of many local officials and health professionals.

“The vaccine is safe,” he added.

The vaccination campaign will prioritise health workers in the first round of the campaign, the minister said.

The vaccines should be “available all over the national territory by latest tomorrow,” he added.

The first batch of China’s Sinopharm vaccines arrived in Cameroon Sunday evening as the country is struggling with a new surge of COVID-19 infections.

It is the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arriving from outside the central African country, where the pandemic broke out in March last year.

Source: Xinhuanet

Europe passed the grim milestone of one million coronavirus deaths on Monday, as the World Health Organization warned that infections are rising exponentially despite widespread efforts aimed at stopping them.

The death toll across Europe’s 52 countries, compiled by AFP from official sources, totalled at least 1,000,288 by 1830 GMT.

“We are in a critical point of the pandemic right now,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19.

“The trajectory of this pandemic is growing… exponentially.

“This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, when we have proven control measures,” she told reporters.

The coronavirus has already killed more than 2.9 million people and infected nearly 136 million across the world.

But despite the sombre news in Europe — the world’s worst-hit region — Britain eased curbs for the first time in months on Monday, allowing Britons to enjoy a taste of freedom with a pint and a haircut.

The changes illustrate how fast-vaccinating countries are leaving other — mostly poorer — nations behind.

In South Africa, the president called for African-made vaccines as the continent lags behind, struggling with inadequate supplies as well as a lack of financing and logistical problems.

“Africa needs to harness its own continental capabilities and identify opportunities for collaboration,” Cyril Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa suggested India or Brazil could help after successfully developing their own generic pharmaceutical industries.

But both giants are battling severe Covid outbreaks, with India overtaking Brazil on Monday as the country with the second-highest number of infections after logging more than 168,000 new cases in a day.

Muslims prepare for second Covid Ramadan

Experts have warned that huge, mostly maskless crowds at political rallies and religious festivals have fuelled India’s caseload.

In the Himalayan city Haridwar, maskless Hindu pilgrims on Monday squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder on the banks of the Ganges River for a dip during the Kumbh Mela ritual.

Several Indian regions have tightened their coronavirus measures, with Maharashtra — India’s wealthiest state and current epicentre of its epidemic — imposing a weekend lockdown and night curfew.

Neighbouring Bangladesh has announced it will virtually seal itself off, shutting down both international and domestic transport starting Wednesday while shutting offices in an attempt to staunch its own spiralling outbreak.

Across the Muslim world, worshippers are gearing up for the start of their second Ramadan of the pandemic, with the holy fasting month due to kick off in many countries on Tuesday.

In Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, the sanitary measures are less strict than a year ago when mosques were shut completely and a curfew was in force.

The mood in Cairo was relatively cheerful as the city prepared for special prayers on Monday night, with bright lights festooning the streets. Many of those rushing around the city shopping for last-minute supplies were maskless, however.

Saudi authorities have meanwhile said that only people immunised against Covid-19 will be allowed to perform the year-round umrah pilgrimage from the start of Ramadan.

Glimmers of hope

In Britain, despite one of the world’s highest Covid-19 death tolls, there were glimmers of hope Monday as pubs and restaurants were allowed to serve people outside — a move welcomed by the hard-hit hospitality sector, despite wintry temperatures.

“It’ll be great to see everybody again and see all the locals,” Louise Porter, landlady of The Crown Inn in Askrigg, northern England, told AFP.

“Our lives have just been turned upside down, just like everybody else’s,” she said, adding: “We’re still here to tell the tale.”

England’s hairdressers, indoor gyms and swimming pools also got the green light to reopen.

Once the worst-affected country in Europe, Britain launched a successful vaccination campaign coupled with lockdown measures that cut deaths by 95 percent and cases by 90 percent from January.

Italy has also been one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries, and on Monday, Rome saw the latest in a series of anti-lockdown demonstrations, with several hundred people turning out in protest against weeks of restaurant closures.

In France, now the European country with the most infections, an expansion of the vaccine rollout has buoyed optimism among lockdown-weary residents. Everyone aged over 55 years old is now eligible for a Covid vaccination.

And in other positive news, clinical trial results indicated that the Regeneron antibody treatment used to treat Covid-19 patients also helps prevent infections.

(AFP)

Cameroon has received 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from the Chinese government as a donation to the Central African country.

The vaccines arrived at the Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport late on Sunday.

The Chinese Ambassador Wang Yingwu and Cameroon’s Health Minister Manaouda Malachi signed the handover and reception documents for the donation.

Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute said he was ready to take his dose of the vaccine as soon as possible as the most appropriate means of protection against the virus.

On Friday, Malachi urged Cameroonians to get the jab, especially those in priority groups.

Cameroon has so far recorded 61,731 coronavirus cases, with 56,926 recoveries and 919 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Scores of Cameroonians with kidney failure and their relatives have blocked traffic since Monday around a Yaoundé hospital to protest a shortage of dialysis treatment.  Cameroon authorities blame administrative procedures and coronavirus disruptions for slowing the import of dialysis machines and medicines. 

Traffic was at a standstill in Yaounde’s Melen neighborhood this week as hundreds of patients with kidney failure, and their relatives, protested a halt to treatment at the Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital.

Among the kidney patients who sat or lay on the road in front of the hospital is 54-year-old Emmanuel Pierre Essi.

He says their protest began on Monday after at least seven kidney patients died within three weeks due to lack of treatment.

Essi says he and many of his peers may die after missing at least six sessions of hemodialysis for the past two weeks.  He says the Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital has only five hemodialysis machines for over 160 patients.  Essi says old age and overuse have crumbled the machines and patients who need four hours of dialysis per session, now take seven hours to filter and purify their blood in the dialysis machine.  He says kidney patients also lack hemodialysis kits and dialysis fluid.

Cameroonian health officials are pleading with the patients to halt their protest while the government tries to fix the problems.

The government says that since the coronavirus pandemic began last year, it has been unable to import dialysis equipment and medicine from suppliers abroad due to travel restrictions and the economic slowdown.

The hospital’s deputy director, Felicien Ntone, says officials are trying to secure the equipment needed for dialysis treatment. 

He says Cameroon and its suppliers in Europe and China are examining the best possible ways to speed the shipment of dialysis kits and dialysis machine spare parts to Cameroon.  Ntone says the government has agreed to urgently release funds for the purchase of hemodialysis kits.

Ntone says kidney patients who become critical will be transferred to other dialysis centers.

He says hospitals are negotiating with the government to allow the buying of medicines and equipment without passing through a long procurement process.

Meanwhile, on the third day of the demonstration, some of the protesters are refusing to back down. 

Yaoundé University student Donald Yaje’s parent has kidney failure.  Yaje vows to keep protesting until the government provides the needed treatment.

“We cannot be indifferent while our relatives are dying,” he said.  “We want the government to look for a way of importing equipment instead of always complaining that the coronavirus has [imposed] restrictions to the shipment of goods from Europe.  They should not forget kidney patients while struggling to stop corona.”

Cameroonian health authorities say the country has about 2,500 patients with acute kidney infections, up from 400 in 2012.  

There are about seven towns in Cameroon with dialysis centers, with five dialysis machines at each.  

Yaoundé has two such centers — the largest with 20 dialysis machines.  But health authorities acknowledge they are often not working as a result of overuse and poor power supply.  

Source: VOA

It is imperative for Cameroon to introduce vaccination against COVID-19 pandemic in a bid to protect vulnerable groups and curb the spread of the disease in the Central African nation, leaders of the country’s two prominent medical associations said Tuesday.

Franck Dange Nana, president of National Council of Pharmacists, and Guy Sandjon, president of National Order of Medical Doctors, made the appeal during a meeting with Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute.

“We need the government to protect the population. To protect this population, we need vaccine. Vaccination has side effects like all medicines but we know that with vaccination against COVID-19, we will contain the disease in our country. We need to join all the countries in the world to vaccinate our people,” Nana told reporters after the meeting in the capital, Yaounde.

“As a medical professional I can assure you that the vaccine is safe. We need to introduce vaccination to safeguard our people,” Sandjon added.

In March, while saying that COVID-19 vaccines will soon arrive in the country, Ngute stressed that vaccination will not be mandatory.

Source: Xinhuanet

With a total of 57,337 cases, the ruling CPDM crime syndicate in Yaoundé has now been informed that La Republique du Cameroun is the 13th most affected country in Africa.

The curve of Covid-19 infection is constantly increasing in the two Cameroons and the frequency is even more worrying but not for the 88 year-old President Biya.

In one week, French Cameroun recorded 4112 new positive cases. This brings the number of people infected with the virus in the two Cameroons to 57,337.

Cameroon Concord News understands that with these figures, the divided nation is gradually approaching the top of the table of the most affected countries on the African continent.

53 people infected with the disease died recently including two cabinet ministers. A total of 851 patients have now died from Covid-19 in French Cameroun and the figures in Southern Cameroons are still being kept like a nuclear secret.

427 patients were reportedly in intensive care in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé, including 122 on oxygen. The National Order of Physicians made an appeal to the Biya regime to take important measures to limit the spread of the virus.

The so-called Dion Ngute administration instead placed a ban on all festive events only in the Centre region hosting the political capital and the barons of the Biya regime.

Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute told a COVID-19 task force meeting to intensify sensitization campaigns as infections continue to increase. But it is still business as usual in all the major towns and cities in French Cameroun.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

A team of doctors successfully completed open heart surgery inside a Russian hospital that caught fire on Friday as firefighters battled the flames from the outside, regional emergency services said.

The wooden roofed building in the far eastern city of Blagoveshchensk caught fire and 60 patients were evacuated as it filled with smoke.

But a team of eight doctors performing the operation on the ground floor carried on.

“We had to save this person and we did everything,” Valentin Filatov, head of the cardio surgery unit, said in an interview with state television.

The Amur region branch of the emergencies ministry said electricity to the operating theatre was provided with a separate cable, while firefighters ensured smoke did not spread to the room.

After the operation, the patient was evacuated from the burning building to another hospital, the ministry added.

Medic Antonina Smolina said that “there was no panic” among the hospital staff.

Local authorities promised to award the doctors who continued with the operation and the firefighters who extinguished the blaze.

Source: AFP

Cameroon has begun vaccinating people against Cholera. The waterborne disease recently resurfaced in the central African country after going several months without reporting a single case.

Since last March, at least 1,890 cases of the disease have been detected. The ministry targets to vaccinate 33,600 people – mostly urban dwellers.

Cholera outbreaks are recurrent in Cameroon’s slums and neighborhoods which lack proper water drainage infrastructure and sanitation facilities.

“Concerning the epidemiological situation of cholera in Cameroon, you know that this disease is a permanent threat in our country, and at the moment several regions are declared at high riskt,” said James Longsi, a public health specialist.

Teams from the ministry of health are visiting suburbs to conduct sensitization before handing out the oral vaccines.

In the Youpwe district of Douala, vaccinations teams have been greeted by a reluctant public, with some people questioning whether the vaccines are not repackaged Covid-19 jabs.

Cameroon’s port city has reported over a dozen cases and one death from Cholera.

“Yes, it is understandable that with Covid19, people are reluctant to be vaccinated. But this vaccination in Cameroon is not the first. The greater North of Cameroon has experienced campaigns that have had no consequences on the health of the population, on the contrary we have had a decrease in cholera cases since the implementation of this campaign (…) And it must be said, the vaccine used in this campaign is safe and effective,” said Longsi.

Cameroon normally registers Cholera cases during and after its rainy season.

The vaccine is being given to women, men and children aged one year and over.

Cholera is a serious acute infectious disease characterized by watery diarrhea, vomiting and can kill a person within hours.

Source: Africa News