Fighting cholera : Schools in barrier mode

To face the cholera epidemic which persists in the city of Yaounde, secondary and primary schools are in line with the measures enacted by the government.

Divine KANANYET

According to the authorities,
the school is the environment where the risk of developing a cholera epidemic is rapid. For nearly a month, nearly 90 cases of cholera have been detected
in Cameroon with at least five people dying in six health districts in the Central Region. To cope with this growing epidemic, the city’s schools are prepared to respond. With a water tank installed,
posters stuck on most of the school walls and special prescriptions,
all means are being used at the Collège Bilingue Paul Messi to prevent cholera. “Those in charge of the school have installed water bottles so that each pupil can wash their hands as soon as they arrive at school. This is also done before and after the break, when leaving the toilets and after the physical education and sports classes,” says a school official. The toilets, powerful places of contamination, are not left out. “We have hired people to keep the toilets clean. They have to use bleach and soap as soon as someone finishes their business and make sure everything is clean,” he explains.
In the canteen, the sale of certain drinks is prohibited. “We have also banned the sale of foléré, kossam and others. We don’t know how these drinks that the children like are made, let alone the water that is used for them. We prefer that for now this stops, especially as we are entering the official exam period. We go into the classrooms to repeat to the children the need to stay clean and at best everyone should come from home with a bottle of water,” he concludes. For their part, the students are in tune with these prescriptions. “We have heard that cholera is present in Yaoundé. In social networks and on TV, the information is spread. At school we have also been informed and the supervisor asks us to wash our hands at the slightest gesture. We do this especially since we are in the sports phase of the exams,” said a student in the 3rd grade.
Floods
Indeed, the Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachie, mentioned a “resurgence of cholera
cases” in a communiqué dated
20 April 2023, but has not yet updated this national report. According
to the communiqué, teams are working to contain the epidemic
in the Centre region. The affected
areas include Djoungolo, Biyem Assi, Cité Verte and Nkoldongo, as well as the towns of Mfou, 20km to the east, and Obala, 40km north of Yaounde. For the response, the Minsanté says that the treatment of cases is free, sensitisation, disinfection of households and communities are underway; water purification kits have been made available, and the surveillance system has been put on alert. As a reminder, cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that can kill in a few hours if left untreated. It reappears
periodically in Cameroon, killing many people in the process. With the current rainy season, the World Health Organisation already feared that flooding in southern Africa posed a high risk of spreading
the disease. In early March, cholera cases were reported in 12 countries on the continent, particularly
Mozambique and Malawi, which are experiencing the largest outbreaks in more than a decade.