Cholera ravaging Y’de, gov’t playing ping-pong with striking health workers!.

Health experts say cholera, which outbreak is menacing Yaounde, is caused by "drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium. In an epidemic, the source of the contamination is usually the faeces of an infected person. The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and drinking water".

Yaounde is in the mire of a cholera epidemic. When the speaker of the National Assembly, Hon Cavaye Djibril, opened parliament last week, he said: “Of the 10 Regions of the country, five are now affected. In the outbreak of the disease, the Centre Region has unfortunately become the epicentre, that is to say, the main focus of the disease at the moment, with half a thousand cases each week, at least, since May 15, 2023”. 

“For the City of Yaounde alone, the capital, seat of the institutions of Cameroon, 60 cases are reported daily,” the President of the National Assembly decried.

According to Cavaye, this cannot be the business of the government alone. “In a local option, it would be desirable for the decentralised territorial communities, the councils in particular, to be strongly involved,” he indicated.

In addition, Cavaye called for the strengthening of epidemiological surveillance throughout the national territory.

The irony of it is that the epidemic is ravaging the capital, which is supposed to be the epitome of cleanliness and national state-of-the-art medical facilities at a time medical staff have been on strike since May 22.

According to the unions on strike, 60% of the workforce are temporary workers in public health facilities and have no salary, even less a work contract or social security.

Philippe Essomba, Physiotherapist and trade unionist, told reporters last week that their integration is one of the 17 demands being made by the unions. 

“We tried to contact the administration to let them know what was going on with these cases, they made promises, we did not have any resolution. As a union, we have re-launched the strike and this time, it will not be lifted or suspended until we have a concrete decision,” he said.

Richard Tchapda, Deputy Secretary General of the Yaounde Central Hospital, added that “the working conditions are not the best, because of understaffing”. 

“What can we expect from a nursing staff who has to take care of 30 patients a day?,” he asked. Since the strike started, the demonstrators have been gathering every day in front of the Ministry of Public Health.

The third week was marked by the arrest, on June 5, of about 20 strikers by the police. They were however released the same evening after intervention by the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO of Mfoundi.

The unions claimed later that the arrests did not discourage the strikers, but on the contrary bolstered their resolved. On Tuesday June 6, the union representatives were received by the Secretary General at the Prime Minister's Office, who told them to wait for the return of the Head of Government, for a solution.

This is not the first time the health personnel are bringing their genuine grievances to government. Last August, they, through two trade unions-the National Union of Staff of Establishments in the Health Sector of Cameroon, Cap/Santé and the National Union of Medical and Health Personnel of Cameroon, SynpemsP, announced a strike from August 16.

Their long list of grievances, which is still being reiterated, includes the provision of employment contracts to some 27,000 temporary staff who constitute 60% of the work force in public hospitals working without salaries, contracts and registration at the National Social Insurance Fund, CNPS.

Other demands include the registration of all psychosocial support staff in public health facilities at CNPS, the reconstitution of the careers of former temporary staff in public hospitals and the allocation of health bonuses to workers in categories five to six.

They also want the allocation of housing allowance to health staff from the first to the sixth categories and the revision of the 1980 decree on training schools, the 2001 special status of public health officials with the introduction of new bodies, the harmonisation of salaries and category or the integration of contract workers as civil servants.

They want salaries of temporary workers to start from 75, 000 FCFA for the first six categories and 95,000 FCFA for categories 7-12.

They are also asking for free medical care for sick health personnel and their nuclear families, increase of the salaries of health personnel, and the allocation of operating subsidies to public health facilities. 

Other demands made by the unions are allocation of a compensatory allowance to support and administrative staff, the review of classification of health personnel at the end of training schools and the obscure professional progression.

Overall, the public health delivery system in Cameroon is literally ailing. Officials of the Ministry of Public Health are on record as saying over 35,000 healthcare practitioners are needed in Cameroon to meet up with the WHO’s recommended standard of one doctor per 10,000 persons ratio. 

The present doctor-patient ratio in the country is one doctor per 50,000 persons. There is the need to increase the number in order to ameliorate healthcare services provided to patients.

But instead of providing incentives to maintain those on the job and attract newcomers, their demands are being met with arrests, especially at a time the capital is facing an epidemic.

The bulk has been reserved for PM Dion Ngute, but given the way the system functions, he is not in a position to resolve the issues which of course also include providing safe drinking water and a hygienic environment to prevent the spread of cholera and other epidemics.

President Paul Biya is known to have intervened in teachers' labour grievances and he is the only one who can solve the problem and also ensure the 15 percent of the national budget allocated to councils is respected for them to keep their communities clean for healthy living.