Beyond The Health Scare

Medical personnel, and researchers have had a test of their wit within the past two years.    While frantic efforts have been ongoing to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and make it a thing of the past, some parts of the country are witnessing an outbreak of cholera. Whatever the nature of the disease, there are unquestionable signs that collective will can be the best asset in overcoming any such challenges. If adhering to government barrier measures has been recommended as the solution to the much-dreaded  Coronavirus, it goes without saying that those being affected by the cholera can simply look up to medical guidelines, make deliberate efforts on their part and follow strategies put in place by the powers that be in order to see life return to normalcy. 
Several recorded examples of the upsetting endemics, devastating epidemics and ravaging pandemics that have swept across the globe rotting humans over time have generally not blocked society from making progress. This has always been because man as a rational being has the capacity to create solutions that last over time. We are not shoving aside the current COVID-19 that is still spitting out its venom and necessitating world governments to continue a head-on fight to save their people.
We are recalling History to point at the current cholera epidemic spreading in some Regions of Cameroon. Only since 2022 it has taken the lives of some 44 persons in the South West alone with the Centre, Littoral and Far North also feeling the effects. The disease appears intermittent and recurrent. In response, the medical personnel is spending sleepless nights employing the institutions they manage and stretching their facilities to contain the plague. A massive mobilisation by the government has seen the deployment of vaccination teams across most of the affected localities.  As the exercise continues, the role of the population must have to be underlined as crucial in warding off the danger. 
The questions triggered by this knowledge of the danger include: what are the affected communities doing to henceforth avoid or prevent cholera? What lessons are learnt from the past events of cholera even by areas not yet involved? How the disease is handled each time it occurs? What is the attitude of the population in the face of the impending danger of cholera? And many more. Public Health Minister and his counterpart of the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy were in some of the most affected areas in the South West Region on Tuesday 29 March, 2022. Top on their agenda was to seek a collective and lasting solution with the participation of those concerned since their personal hygiene rules at this critical moment remain primordial in tackling the ailment. 
Government has structured healthcare delivery from district through regional and national levels deploying nurses, general practitioner doctors, specialist doctors and doctors of professorial ranks to act in the sector. The Ministry of Public Health has, time and again, multiplied slogans to inform the population of prevention, curative and post malady survival methods. Such educative messages are in traditional media platforms and informal settings. In addition, Government has woven partnerships with multilaterals like the WHO and budgeted CFA Billions to provide healthcare. Various State-owned Universities run Health Science Faculties do produce medics in their hundreds yearly. The Health Ministry is constantly visible carrying out vaccination exercises, admitting patients in hospitals and attending to situations round the clock.
Yet, cholera, the disease of filthiness remains recurrent. A disease that kills people who cherish their lives. What attitude has the population been adopting to secure their own lives? Unfortunately, local communities have seemed to abandon the fight against cholera in the hands of Government. Hardly do people meet in their traditional councils and talk cholera or insist on hygiene conditions around their villages or settlements. It may not be easy to say why it been so difficult to boil the water fetched fr...