A museum dedicated to vaginas and vulvas opened it doors in the north of London on Saturday. It is a world’s first.

The museum hopes to help destigmatize this part of the female body and debunk myths around it.

“The vagina and the vulva are a hugely stigmatized part of the body, and they have lots of embarrassment. Cervical cancers are not being picked up quick enough So, in an effort to destigmatize this part of the body, that’s why we’ve made the vagina museum”, said Florence Schechter, Founder and Director of the vagina museum.

Founder and Director of the vagina museum said the challenge is not only to educate and improve self-image, but it is also a question about public health.

“I think the worst myth for me is that they are dirty and they need to be cleaned, and I think this is just going to be shampooed for having normal natural bodies. The vagina and the vulva are not dirty parts of the body, they are self cleaning and the idea that they are dirty is just another way of the patriarchy reasserting itself”, Schechter said.

Curators hope more people will be interested in what the museum has on offer.

“I hope everyone could come in. Anyone who wants to learn about the vagina, learn about the vulva, we’ve interacted men, women, people of all genders, people of all sexualities, people of all races and ethnicities, we’ve had a hugely varied audience and I hope to continue that’‘, she added.

Curators say the museum is only opened for educational purposes. It has not yet been opened to the public, but events have already being organized, attracting people from 2 to 98 years.

AFP

One-year-old Cameroonian conjoined twins were successfully separated in a 5-hour operation in France on Wednesday, the hospital said.

Sisters Bissie and Eyenga Merveille—their family name is the French word for “marvel”—were born in Cameroon on Nov. 6, 2018, joined front-to-front and partly sharing a liver, the hospital said in a statement.

After the marathon separation in southeastern French city Lyon, which involved some 20 surgeons, doctors and other medical experts, the girls were put into emergency care and said to be in a stable condition.

They were brought to France for the life-changing procedure by the charity organization La Chaine de l’Espoir.

One of the girls has been diagnosed with a heart condition, which will be operated on later, the charity said on its website.

Rejected by the girls’ father and members of her family, the twins’ mother Mayah fled her town of Ayos to Cameroon’s capital Yaounde some 140 kilometers (87 miles) away, where she and her daughters took refuge at a hospital where they lived awaiting the operation.

Source: AFP

The Cameroon Forum for Medical and Paramedical Sciences, Camfomedics – was founded on May 7, 1994 in Tübingen by Cameroonian students of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The 4^th to 5^th October 2019 was reserved to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the organization and to make public a new plan of action engineered to move the association forward. An extra-ordinary event – The African Health Day was staged in the city of Essen, in which more than 20 medical professionals from Cameroon and Nigeria attended to the health needs of several African migrants residing in the North Rhine Westphalia province and even beyond.

Some Cameroonian medical experts from the UK, Canada, and USA were also there to offer some form of support service to the targeted population. Precious consultations, medical test, examinations and therapeutic advices were offered without charge to the hundreds of participants.

The climax of the outdoor event was the iMed Award 2019 that was honorably given to Dr Benice Ndofor. She was recognized for her precious engagement and for professionally instructing and guiding participants at the Camformedics Academy in Cameroon.

Camformedics success stories have all been registered under the supreme leadership of Dr. Ivo Azeh, who for over 10 years directed the body to extend its health services to benefit the underprivileged populace. The organization is now blessed with a new and dynamic leader in the person of Dr. Fonye Ki Nyui. Cameroon Concord News Tambe Ndip Arrah met with the Right Hon. Dr Ivo Azeh during the 20^th anniversary celebration. Below is his short and soul-searching conversation with the medical man.  

Cameroon Concord News: Dr. Ivo Azeh thanks for accepting to talk to us! We learnt on this occasion of the 25^th anniversary and the African Health Day that Camfomedics offered free consultations to the German public. What was the motivation?

Dr. Ivo Azeh: Well, it was a German public event but it was really tailored to meet the needs of Africans who live in Germany and that´s why we call it the African Health Day. We realized that we have different access to health services and people of African origin have other determinants. Our program is a health outreach, a health promotion activity to reach out to many Africans to offer them our health services and also to let Africans understand how the German health care system functions. Moreover, to guide them on how they can get better access to the health care system, and most importantly to inform them of particularities that prevail amongst African immigrants. So really it was an outreach deemed to reach out to people of African origin.

Cameroon Concord News: Talking about free medical examination, test and consultation. As the leader, what bill of health can you give to this event? Was it successful and satisfactory and did you attain your goals?

Dr. Ivo Azeh: Well, it was the first of its kind and it was amazing!We hope to continue with such activity! We did it with the Nigerian medical association. More than 20 medics of different specialities were attending to participants. I have never had an outreach event with so many medical professionals. The essential medical equipment was available to meet the requirement of the event. The turnout was good and we hope it would be better in future if we use different channels to inform people. We hope to continue with such activities.

Cameroon Concord News: We understand that you are leaving the leadership of Camfomedics. We watched the videos played, with so much appreciation and as tribute to you. It appears to be like Dr. Ivo Azeh is synonymous to Camfomedics. Your thoughts?

Dr. Ivo Azeh: Certainly, I must say it was really a surprise and am really touched by the videos and I am still like thinking, which Ivo are they talking about. I don´t have words to describe it, when your colleagues have so much high acknowledgements for what you have done! That is what keeps on motivating me throughout these years because there are a lot of people, I have confidence in; who are always available to respond when their support is required. Behind me was an active network of people who were providing the services we needed. So it´s not only me but collaborative work. I did a lot; likewise I owe the organization a lot. I gathered a lot of skills on how to manage, deal with and prevail over challenges that emanated from such activities professionally. I think the organization offers the possibility for young people to learn leadership skills and that´s what we are out for and am happy that we have young charismatic persons who are stepping in, learning, gaining experience and developing.

Cameroon Concord News: Can you proudly say Camfomedics as an institution that has its feet strongly rooted on the ground with the necessary structures for continuity?

Dr. Ivo Azeh: Obviously am leaving the executive but I am still a member of Camfomedics and in that capacity, I will continue to make contributions and participate efficiently to share the experience we need and guide the new executive. I believe they will be successful especially as the new president Dr. Fonyuy Nyuyki has been in the executive board for four years and we have been working together. I believe in continuity and we have a huge team of 7 people, many young enthusiastic. Undoubtedly, they will be able to promote and translate the aspirations of Camfomedics.

Paul BIYA and wife – Chantal BIYA arrived at the Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport on the evening of 8 October 2019.

The 86 year old French Cameroun dictator travelled to France on the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron and will attend the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment Conference on the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that is scheduled for 9-10 October 2019.

The Global Fund seeks to accelerate the fight against HIV, TB and malaria. The conference in Lyon is expected to raise a minimum of 14 billion US dollars to save 16 million lives, prevent 234 million infections and eradicate these diseases.

Culled from the PRC with additional editing from Camcordnews

Cameroon is devising new methods to eliminate mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmissions, Minister of Public Health Malachie Manaouda said on Tuesday.

“With the increase of children affected by the virus, we are designing a new strategic vision and new priority actions to accelerate the elimination of mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission and treatment of HIV in children and adolescents.” the minister said.

Only 20 percent of infected under-18 are taken care of, Manaouda said.

Despite “important challenges”, Manaouda said, Cameroon is on the path of attaining the 90-90-90 goal, which requires countries to ensure 90 percent of people living with HIV know their HIV status, receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and have viral suppression by 2020.

Manaouda was addressing a national forum on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and HIV care in children and adolescents, in the capital city, Yaounde, in collaboration with UNICEF.

According to Cameroon National AIDS Control Committee, 6,000 newborn babies from infected mothers were taken care of in 2018.

There are over 500,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS in Cameroon, and despite better access to treatment in adults, access to antiretroviral treatment for children remains very inadequate, according to the health ministry.

Source: Xinhuanet

Across the world, one person takes their own life every 40 seconds, and more people die by suicide every year than in war, the World Health Organization says.

Hanging, poisoning and shooting are the most common suicide methods, the WHO said as it urged governments to adopt suicide prevention plans to help people cope with stress and to reduce access to suicide means.

“Suicide is a global public health issue. All ages, sexes and regions of the world are affected (and) each loss is one too many,” the WHO’s report said.

Suicide was the second leading cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 29, after road injury, and among teenage girls aged 15 to 19 it was the second biggest killer after maternal conditions. In teenage boys, suicide ranked third behind road injury and interpersonal violence.

Overall, close to 800,000 people die by suicide every year – more than are killed by malaria or breast cancer, or by war or homicide, the WHO said.

Global rates have fallen in recent years – with a 9.8% decrease between 2010 and 2016 – but declines were patchy. In the WHO’s Americas region, for example, rates rose by 6% in between 2010 and 2016.

The report also found that nearly three times as many men as women die by suicide in wealthy countries, in contrast to low- and middle-income countries, where the rates are more equal.

“Suicides are preventable,” said the WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.”We call on all countries to incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programs.”

The WHO said restricting access to pesticides was one of the most effective ways of reducing suicide numbers swiftly.

Pesticides are commonly used and usually result in death because they are so toxic, have no antidotes, and are often used in remote areas where there is no nearby medical help.

The WHO pointed to studies in Sri Lanka, where bans on pesticides have led to a 70% drop in suicides and an estimated 93,000 lives saved between 1995 and 2015.

(Source: Reuters)

In early August, on the eve of the arrival of a medical team with free services, villagers gathered in groups of twos and threes, buzzing with tales of the wondrous Chinese doctors.

“Without them, I would have been dead” said Christophe Ndi Owona, the 76-year-old chief of the southern Cameroonian village of Ngat-Bane.

Before Chinese doctors came to his village, Owona had been suffering from severe headache for years. “Everybody thought I would die.”

The team gave him medicine and advised him to stop drinking alcohol, Owona told his folks. “Thanks to the Chinese, I am now as healthy as a baby.”

Ngat-Bane, like many other Cameroonian villages, has abundant wildlife and dispersed thatched huts, but zero hospitals. Villagers are often troubled by such health problems as rheumatism, typhoid, malaria, but most of them cannot afford medical services in Mbalmayo, the nearest town.

The next day, in the heartland of Ngat-Bane, a good number of patients from nearby villages gathered in a makeshift, but free and comprehensive clinic, lining up to see doctors from various departments, who are here as members of the 19th Chinese medical team to Cameroon.

For the first time in almost a year, 69-year-old Liliane Mfoumou felt relieved from her back injury after an acupuncture treatment. Before this, the mother of six had visited doctors several times in Mbalmayo, a major city in Cameroon’s Central Province.

“Medical checkups and treatments in hospitals are quite expensive, and I can’t afford them again,” Mfoumou said, expressing gratitude to the free clinic.

A Chinese acupuncturist inserted fine needles in Mfoumou’s skin at specific points. Thanks to this traditional Chinese method, which is applicable to many health conditions, Mfoumou said she “now can feel my back and legs.”

Michel Ndi has insomnia and heart problems, making it difficult for the 59-year-old to trek to his farm. He consulted almost all the specialists and was offered free treatments, including medicine, for his multiple conditions.

“Their kind and friendly manner heals you even before you start treatment,” said the father of 10 children, “I am sure that in the next two or three days, I will be able to go (to) the farm without difficulties.”

A total of 100 patients, aged from 20 months to 98 years, received diagnosis and treatments worth 1,500 U. S. dollars.

The free clinic ran for more than five consecutive hours, after which the folks offered the Chinese medical team a local dish called Kpem, a traditional meal made from cassava leaves.

China started to dispatch medical teams to Cameroon in 1975 and hundreds of medical professionals have worked in Cameroon since then.

Source: Xinhuanet

Two experimental Ebola drugs being tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a yearlong outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people, have succeeded in raising the survival rate to around 90%, health authorities said Monday.

Scientists are a step closer to finding the first effective treatments for the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever after two potential drugs showed survival rate of as much as 90% in a clinical trial in Congo.

Two experimental drugs – Regeneron’s REGN-EB3 and a monoclonal antibody called mAb114 – were both developed using antibodies harvested from survivors of Ebola infection.

The treatments are now going to be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

They showed “clearly better” results in patients in a trial of four potential treatments being conducted during the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak in history, now entering its second year in DRC.

The drugs improved survival rates from the disease more than two other treatments being tested – ZMapp, made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, and Remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences – and those products will be now dropped, said Anthony Fauci, one of the researchers co-leading the trial.

The agency said 49% of the patients on ZMapp and 53% on remdesivir died in the study. In comparison, 29% of the patients on REGN-EB3 and 34% on mAb-114 died.

Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters in a telebriefing the results were “very good news” for the fight against Ebola.

“What this means is that we do now have what look like (two) treatments for a disease for which not long ago we really had no approach at all,” he said.

The agency said of the patients who were brought into treatment centres with low levels of virus detected in their blood, 94% who got REGN-EB3 and 89% on mAb114 survived.

In comparison, two-third of the patients who got remdesivir and nearly three-fourth on ZMapp survived.

Ebola has been spreading in eastern Congo since August 2018 in an outbreak that has now become the second largest, killing at least 1,800 people. Efforts to control it have been hampered by militia violence and some local resistance to outside help.

A vast Ebola outbreak in West Africa become the world’s largest ever when it spread through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2013 to 2016 and killed more than 11,300 people.

The Congo treatment trial, which began in November last year, is being carried out by an international research group coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies program, said the trial’s positive findings were encouraging but would not be enough on their own to bring the epidemic to an end.

“The news today is fantastic. It gives us a new tool in our toolbox against Ebola, but it will not in itself stop Ebola,” he told reporters.

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, also hailed the success of the trial’s findings, saying they would “undoubtedly save lives”.

“The more we learn about these two treatments, …the closer we can get to turning Ebola from a terrifying disease to one that is preventable and treatable,” he said in a statement.

“We won’t ever get rid of Ebola but we should be able to stop these outbreaks from turning into major national and regional epidemics.”

Some 681 patients at four separate treatment centres in Congo have already been enrolled in the Congo treatment clinical trial, Fauci said. The study aims to enrol a total of 725.

The decision to drop two of the trial drugs was based on data from almost 500 patients, he said, which showed that those who got REGN-EB3 or mAb114 “had a greater chance of survival compared to those participants in the other two arms”.

(REUTERS)

Health care providers have a legal and ethical duty for the care of their patients and are required, therefore, to provide care in a safe way and a harm-free environment. Routine clinical practice is expected to be based on knowledge, skills, judgment, and attitudes needed for safe patient care.The field of infection prevention and control for, example, isan area where the expectations are high as the field is characterized by guidelines and standards, and failure to comply with recommended guidelines will mean a failure to meet the appropriate standard of care.

Infection prevention and control practice has evolved significantly over the years and health care professionals need to stay abreast with the new scientific literature to adapt to changing guidelines. This is particularly important as the threat of emerging infectious diseases like Ebola, SARS, avian influenza and multidrug-resistance are on the rise.

The skill sets required for the effective application of infection prevention and control is therefore indispensable for safe and quality patient care amidst enormous clinical challenges. For example, environmental surfaces and equipment frequently become contaminated with germs and can serve as an indirect source of transmission to patients and staff. Surgical procedures may result in secondary infections from contaminated devices with either endogenous or exogenous microorganisms. Needle stick injuries may result in blood borne infections such as HIV, hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C. Gaps in vaccination coverage for vaccine-preventable diseases may result in an outbreak. Natural or man-made disasters may also increase the burden of communicable diseases. Also, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated bloodstream infection, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and surgical site infections together referred to as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs)are increasingly prevalent inpatient care environments. These HAIs often result from gaps in the application of aseptic techniques and standard precautions.

Besides the problem of HAIs, the prevalence of infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms is also on the rise. The problem of antimicrobial-resistant infection is further compounded by the following: the continuous reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to invest in the search for new antimicrobials because of fear of the potential development of resistance; regulatory difficulties faced by public health bodies to effectively control access and proper use of antimicrobials and fundamental challenges in antimicrobial stewardship programs. Consequently, considering that every infection prevented is one that needs no treatment, infection prevention and control is undoubtedly an attractive way to mitigate the spread of infections and reduce the global burden of infectious diseases.

Despite the need and relevance of infection prevention and control in quality patient care, the day-to-day application is sometime overlooked or missed by health care professionals,partly because of knowledge gaps, negligence, or busy shifts. Continuous education and training is necessary to reawaken awareness and improve compliance.

The purpose of this guide is to provide health care professionals and their organizations with a practical resource for infection prevention and control.Contained within the guide is an introduction to infections including HAIs and infections caused by multi drug-resistant organisms, how they are transmitted, methods to control the spread, antimicrobial stewardship, standard precautions, transmission precautions, emergency response, the environment of care, and equipment reprocessing.

Without proper training on how infections are transmitted, including infection prevention and control standards, health care professionals may unconsciously fail to adhere to standard precautions and guidelines and this may enhance the transmission of pathogens.  Therefore, health care workers need adequate knowledge of the infectious process and the application of both standard and transmission-based precautions along with an optimum environment of care. To maintain quality in practice, health care professionals must seek to continuously improve their knowledge in infection prevention and control, as well as remain constantly vigilant to emerging microbial threats.

I encourage all health care professionals to take advantage of this professional development opportunity to enhance their competency and improve patient care.

The book is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle eBook format .(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W81LM1B?pf_rd_p=2d1ab404-3b11-4c97-b3db-48081e145e35&pf_rd_r=GRA6XJ4YENM757J22ZCP)

About the author

Dr. Ayukekbong holds a Ph.D in medical science and is a board-certified infection preventionist (CIC). He is the founder and chief infection preventionist at EpiTech Public Health, Canada and also an instructor at Algonquin College, University of Ottawa. Through his organization, he has led the training of hundreds of health care professionals on infection prevention and control. His primary research interest is infectious disease surveillance and has published several papers within this field. He is a member of Infection prevention and control (IPAC) Canada and the Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN). He is a guest editor to the Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Virology and AIDS, and also serves as an expert reviewer to several international scientific and public health journals.

Three Congolese medics have been detained over the murder of a World Health Organization (WHO) doctor who was fighting an Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo, a military prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Cameroonian doctor Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung was shot dead on April 19 in an attack on a hospital in the eastern city of Butembo.

The arrested doctors will be prosecuted for “terrorism” and “criminal conspiracy,” Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Baptiste Kumbu Ngoma, military prosecutor for Butembo in North Kivu province, told AFP.

The three are accused of holding meetings on April 14 to plot the assassination of Mouzoko, he added.

The WHO said Mouzoko had been deployed as part of a medical team to help rein in the Ebola outbreak which started last August in North Kivu.

The prosecutor said the doctors were “among the moral authors” of the attack on Mouzoko. He said one more doctor was being sought in the case.

In a letter to the mayor of Butembo, the local doctors’ association expressed indignation at the arrests and said they would go on strike if their colleagues were not released within 48 hours.

But the military prosecutor dismissed their demands as “out of the question”.

“It’s a delicate situation. As a man has died, we absolutely have know the truth about what happened,” the coordinator of the fight against Ebola in the DR Congo, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, told AFP.

More than 1,800 people have died from the virus in the past year.

The outbreak is the second deadliest on record, after the epidemic that struck West Africa in 2014-2016, which killed more than 11,300 people.

Efforts to roll back the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever have been hampered not only by fighting but also by resistance within communities to preventative measures, care facilities and safe burials.

Attacks on health workers have had a devastating effect, with seven murdered and more than 50 seriously hurt, according to an unofficial tally.

After the killing of Mouzoko in April, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “We will not be intimidated… we will finish our work.”

Source: AFP