Knocking Out Malaria in Cameroon
13 September 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Knocking Out Malaria in Cameroon
The following post is by UNICEF Cameroon Representative Ora Musu Clemens Hope.
Dr. Esther Tallah, the head of the Cameroon Coalition Against Malaria, and I set out for Mfou, 25 kilometers outside of Yaounde, to see how the census phase of the campaign for the universal distribution of almost 9 million long lasting insecticide treated bed nets is going. Dubbed "KO Palu" (Knock Out Malaria), the campaign kick-off on August 20 was a spectacular extravanga staged by the government of Cameroon and Malaria No More.
Our first stop, Nkolbikogo, had nothing going on. Counting not yet started. We talked to a family sitting out on their porch. They'd heard of the campaign and were expecting the counters. Learning that we were from UNICEF and the Cameroon Coalition, the father said that with the health center almost next door, he was hopeful that his household would not be missed. We drive to the hospital to talk with the District Medical Officer. The census supervisor from Mfvan happens to be there turning in the daily tallies from his team, one of eight for the district. He tells us they started the count on August 24 and that so far so good. But the DMO says the supervisor doesn't want to say that the money to pay the census takers has not yet arrived from Yaounde. Planned as a 10 day exercise, the census takers are supposed to be paid at the end. So, with only four days remaining, the supervisor is undoubtedly worried about how he will pay the teams.
Hoping to catch up with one of the counting teams, we set out from the hospital with the nursing supervisor who tells us that the first two days were a bit challenging because people were reticent about giving information about their children. We drive for about 10 minutes then stop to buy soft drinks. When our driver informs us that he has located a team, we settle up and walk the short distance to a small compound with four houses. Mballa Thomas Daquin and Mani Bernadette Sylvie make up this team from the local Red Cross, a key part of the strategy to involve communities in fighting malaria. Thomas is marking the gate with white chalk according to established procedure. Walking with him to the first house, we encounter his teammate Bernadette with the register. She carefully writes down the names of the household members given by the mother, Marie-Aimee. Four children in stair step ages glance shyly at us, breaking into smiles when I ask if they will sleep under their nets. Marie-Aimee offers that she's very happy that today is a holiday (Eid, the end of Ramadan) because the census takers would not likely have found her at home during the week. The children have all had malaria, so she's looking forward to picking up the nets from the district hospital on September 12.
By this time, Bernadette has completed the voucher and Marie-Aimee signs it. She is advised to safeguard it because without the voucher, she will not receive the 3 nets reserved for her family of 6. We observe the same process in the second and third houses. The fourth one is locked because the person living there comes from Yaounde infrequently the neighbors tell us.
The team had registered 150 houses so far. " Now, people wait along the side of the road asking us to take down their information so they can go to their farm or to other work. It's better to go door to door so that we get everyone" Thomas tells us. Interestingly enough, we are in the restaurant of the Hotel Le Bon Samaritain.
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| Happy mother with voucher. |
Sitting in the restaurant again, this time with the census team, we ask how things are going. Thomas tells us that the only problem so far was on the first day when a child had refused to let them in. Today, they had gone back to the house where the father apologized saying the child thought they were people posing as electric company workers. At another house, they had encountered a woman who identified herself as a member of a certain religious group and refused to provide any information about anyone else in the house. Dr. Tallah suggests that Bernadette make a notation on the page where the woman had been registered. We propose that they try to go back to persuade her to give the information so that her voucher can be amended to show the number of people living in the house in order to get the nets required to protect her family from malaria.
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| House gets marked. |
Stay tuned. I'll be going out in September to observe the distribution. This is the first time Cameroon is conducting a universal net distribution and it is a huge challenge with a huge potential to reduce the number of people who get malaria.
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| Family getting enlisted. |
