Report on the Camesa Health symposium on Malaria
3 March 2009
The symposium took place in the Amphitheatre C of the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences on Wednesday March 3rd 2009. In attendance were 25 students most of whom were of the first cycle grouping a cross section of all departments which are Medicine dental medicine Pharmacology and Biomedical Sciences.
It started at 1: 30 pm with self presentation by the members and also a presentation of the Association CAMESA by the secretary general.
There was an introductory talk on Malaria given by Dr Tallah Esther focusing on Malaria statistics, the causative agent plasmodium, modes of transmission and also of prevention and treatment laying emphasis on the First line therapy adopted in Cameroon. This was followed by questions from CAMESA members to which Dr Tallah the presenter gave answers.
The Global Malaria Action Plan was presented together with its objectives which were short, medium and long term. The Institutions involved and strategies of this plan were also presented. The plan had as main objective the eradication of Malaria and also reduction of household expenditure on the treatment of Malaria.
There were questions from CAMESANs most of which were focused on the treatment and also probable complications of malaria to which Dr Tallah gave answers.
Dr Tallah made a proposal for CAMESA to have a session with the Cameroon Coalition Against Malaria in preparation for the CAMESA Health Campaign to take place in Bafut Health District of the North West Region. This session would focus on empowering CAMESANs with methods of combating malaria so that they can transmit these methods to the target population of the health campaign.
CAMESA received a donation of didactic materials from the presenter which included:
· Nine fliers of the Cameroon Coalition Against Malaria, CCAM
· Five copies of a report about malaria by the Global Action Plan Against Malaria
· Three copies of key facts, figures and strategies (The Global Malaria Action Plan)
The symposium ended with a word of appreciation from the Secretary General of CAMESA and was followed by a collation.
The symposium was followed with a fundraising event for the CAMESA Summer Health Campaign that took place on the 18th of April, 2009 at the CCAM Bastos headquarters.
