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Catholic Aid Agency Reaches Out to Health Workers in Cameroon with Trainers

Malteser International Emergency Medical Team during a simulation exercise in 2019.

By Mercy Maina

Yaounde, 25 June, 2020 / 9:15 pm (ACI Africa).

The leadership of the Rome-based Catholic Lay Religious Sovereign Order of Malta, Malteser International (MI), is sending an Emergency Medical Team (EMT) to Cameroon in response to the Central African nation’s appeal for international assistance in controlling the “the rapid spread of COVID-19.”

“The team will be assisting and providing training for medical staff of three hospitals in the city as they respond to COVID-19,” MI’s International’s Emergency Response Coordinator, Oliver Hochendez has been quoted as saying.

The MI official has added in the June 23 report, “Our goal is to ensure that healthcare workers treating patients do not become infected themselves and that medical facilities remain free of infection.”

The health practitioners being commissioned to Cameroon comprise a six-strong team of doctors, anesthesiologists and experts from the fields of water, sanitation, hygiene and logistics.

They were scheduled to leave for the country’s capital, Yaounde on Thursday, June 25.

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With 12,592 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 10,100 recoveries and 313 deaths, Cameroon reportedly has one of Africa's highest infection rates and has been described as the “COVID-19 epicenter in western and central Africa.”

COVID-19 becomes the fourth emergency that the 25.2-million-population nation is dealing with, besides exacerbating Boko Haram attacks in the north, violent conflict in Anglophone west, and the Central African refugee crisis.

For the second time running, the country is first on the list of  ten most neglected crises in the world, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic is compounding these crises and adding more suffering to already vulnerable populations,” the leadership of MI has said.

According to the USA and Germany-headquartered relief agency, the Cameroon deployment will be its first EMT operation since receiving WHO’s classification in 2018.

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Founded in 2005, MI strives to provide emergency relief in situations of crisis such as natural disasters, epidemics, or armed conflicts and carries out programs that enable people transform their lives for the better.

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