In the last two decades, the rate of cases of hypertension has doubled in rural areas and urban areas in Cameroon while diabetes has increased by 2.6 percent. The change in traditional Cameroonian way of life has brought about numerous risk factors in the lives of vulnerable people who are often obliged to depend on treatment but are usually not able to cope due to the high cost of drugs.
It is in this light that a two-day workshop on tackling cardiovascular and non-communicable disease in Cameroon opened in Yaounde yesterday September 28. Organised by the Cameroon Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences of America, the workshop brings together participants from all sectors. The goal of the workshop is to bring key and diverse stakeholders to exchange ideas on hot spots of national public health with the aim of providing holistic and objective analysis which will enable decision makers to make changes in policy in view of the degenerating cardiovascular situation in Cameroon and the world.
Speaking during the opening, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation, Rebecca Madeleine Ebelle Etame said Cameroon faces the double weight of infectious and non-infectious diseases which affect government budget and render vulnerable families poor. She expressed hope that at the end of the workshop the different institutions will better understand the fight against cardiovascular diseases in the country. Rebecca Madeleine Ebelle Etame called on participants to work hands-in-glove in order to come out with recommendations that will help stop the increase in non-communicable diseases in the country. The Cameroon Academy of Sciences also launched the Nutrition and Health Report of Cameroon for 2011.
Elizabeth MOSIMA
