By Kini Nsom
Corruption has been identified as the main jinx hindering the effective distribution of modern malaria drugs, subsidised by the Global Health Fund for Malaria AIDS and Tuberculosis.
The Permanent Secretary at the National Malaria Control Programme, Dr. Raphael Okalla, made this revelation during a press conference in Yaounde February 14.He said corrupt doctors in some government hospitals were pilfering the subsidised drugs and giving them out to people to sell at higher prices for them to make gains.
He said government has responded to this unfortunate development by creating supervisory and control teams so that the drugs are sold only to needy at the subsidised prices.Dr. Okalla said the Minister of Public Health recently slammed administrative sanctions on some health personnel at the Yaounde Central Hospital for mismanaging subsidised drugs.
He said the wish of the Global Health Fund and that of the government of Cameroon is to make sure that the maximum number of malaria patients receives cheap treatment.In this wise, he urged health authorities to always make sure that they inform patients as to where they can buy the drugs at subsidised prices.
Malaria Treatment
The main topic of the press conference organised by the Cameroon Media Against Malaria, CCAM, was malaria treatment. In this wise, Dr. Okalla said anybody treating the disease should understand that there are two kinds of malaria - there simple and complicated types that warrant different treatments.
Okalla cautioned that any malaria treatment should begin with proper diagnosis to determine whether it is simple or complicated. Symptoms of simple malaria, he said, are fever, fatigue and joint pains. The doctor said any malaria treatment should begin with a test because there are many other diseases that cause fever.
The medic said malaria is rated as complicated when the patient has high fever, high temperature and severe body pains and vomits continuously. Heavily coloured urine and dehydration are equally signs of complicated malaria. In children, such complicated malaria also brings convulsions.
"Every bout of malaria in a pregnant woman should be treated as severe malaria," he warned.Following recent research which indicated that most of the drugs including Chloroquine are no longer effective against malaria, health authorities have prescribed two drug combinations as the most effective treatment against malaria - Lumefanthrine-Arthemiter and Artesunate-Amordiaquine combinations.
According to Okalla, these two combinations are the most effective for the treatment of simple malaria. He said severe malaria could only be treated with Quinine.It was stated that simple malaria becomes complicated malaria when it is not well treated. Although medics claim that the Lumefanthrine-Arthemiter combination and the Artesunate-Amordiaquine therapy have no side effects, many patients complain that when they take the drugs they become weaker.
In the face of such complaints, Okalla said patients could always minimise the side effects of the drugs if they eat well before taking them.He announced that the National Malaria Control Programme would be distributing mosquito nets to families that have children aged below five in the Northwest Province soon.
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