Malaria in Cameroon

Malaria Day picture from the internet.

So, I am writing this little series of posts on malaria because April is World Malaria Month and the 25th of April is World Malaria Day! I hope to be able to post one to two posts a week this month (Most of the information will be from Peace Corps training and handbooks.)

Peace Corps Initiative: Stomp Out Malaria.

In Cameroon there are 1,700,000 documented cases of malaria every year. A survey done in 2011 showed that, in Cameroon, malaria is the cause of 40-45% of hospital consultations, 30% of hospitalizations (52% of child hospitalizations), 24% of deaths in hospitals, 40% of health expenditures, and 26% of reported work absences. About 71% of Cameroon has a high transmission rate, one case per one thousand people, and the rest of the country has a transmission rate of zero to one case per one thousand people (WHO). This means that malaria is transmitted in every part of Cameroon. According to a study done by Malaria No More in 2013, despite measures being taken by Cameroon to prevent malaria, only 36% of households own an insecticidal net and only 21% of children sleep under these nets.

 

Map of Cameroon showing the ten regions.

Malaria is found in all ten regions of Cameroon and it is possible for anyone to get malaria. It is thought by some people in Cameroon that it is not possible to get malaria during the dry season, if they live at higher altitudes, or if they live in urban areas. Although it is true that there are fewer mosquitoes in dry season and in urban areas due to there being less standing water in which mosquitoes can breed and there are fewer mosquitoes at high altitudes due to the cooler temperatures, it is still possible to get malaria. This is because there are still people traveling into or through the area who have malaria and some mosquitoes around to transmit the disease. There is a spike in cases of malaria not long after the start of the rainy season due to the increased amount of standing water and, therefore, the increased amount of breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Malaria survives dry season because the mosquitoes don’t require much water to breed and there are people who have malaria who do not get treated because they don't show symptoms or they weren't treated properly. In the Grand North (Adamawa, North, and Extreme North regions), malaria is almost seasonal because of the large difference in the amount of precipitation between the rainy season and the dry season. In the much more humid Grand South however, the change in precipitation does not bring as large a difference in the number of cases of malaria between the rainy and dry seasons.

Almost the entire country of Cameroon is in the "most intense transmission" category which means 75 confirmed cases per 1,000 people. Malaria is everywhere in Cameroon at all times. In one of my later posts I will talk about what Cameroon is doing to fight against the spread of malaria.