Cameroon’s healthcare system is going through a challenging moment as the number of cases of COVID-19 keep rising with the recent figures now above 11000 confirmed cases.
As many are dying from this pandemic, the panic and fear is increasing among the population.
Families suffer from the pain of not being able to bury their love ones who die from COVID-19 due to burial restrictions and conditions imposed by the government.
There have been a number of incidence where families are seen protesting in the hospital that their relative died from negligence and stigmatization and not COVID-19.
This has compounded the problem of access to healthcare during this period. There is a huge decline in the number of people visiting hospitals or clinics to consult for their health problems.
A Non Governmental Organization, Unite for Health Foundation is doing a lot to remedy the situation.
At Unite for Health, there have been a drastic decline in patient turn over in all their three micro-clinics. Pregnant women who were enrolled for Prenatal care are not regular for their routine medical checks.
Statistical evidence shows that during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, cameroon lost more people to malaria than to Ebola. Let that not repeat with COVID-19.
That is why Unite for Health Foundation has decided to launch a tele-medicine program in order to permit those in the communities that they serve to be able to use their phones, either through direct phone calls or video calls to consult with a doctor and get the best of advise on what to do about their health.
The initiative is also to help screen and educate patients on COVID-19. Fortunately, most households in Cameroon have a mobile phone these days.
The program shall be launched in Bamenda in the North West region of Cameroon which host one of the health facilities of the foundation, and it shall equally go operational in all the three micro-clinics run by the foundation.
Patients can call the following number for consultations either directly or through whatsapp video call between 8am – 6pm from Mondays to Saturdays;
Bamenda: +237 651414893
Bonamoussadi – Yaounde: +237 672 020 339
Eloumden-Mbankomo: +237 681 821 944
At Unite Health Foundation, they do not want to let the COVID-19 emergency separate pregnant women, mothers and children from their urgent, life-saving medical care or disease prevention programs. Both are absolutely critical to the public health of thousands of Cameroonians.
Unite for Health Foundation is a non-profit organization operating in Cameroon since 2007 and its mission is to combat infant mortality, and fight infectious and non-infectious diseases by building micro-clinics that provide affordable healthcare and health education for people in remote, underserved African communities.