The visit was in prelude to the 9th International Conference on MCH Handbook in 2014.
The Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda granted audience to the visiting Global Chair of the International Organising Committee on Maternal Health Handbook (MCH) Professor Yasuhide Nakamura, on Wednesday September 11, 2013 in Yaounde. The visit was in prelude to the 9th International Conference of Maternal Health Handbook to hold in Cameroon in October 2014.
Speaking to journalists after the brief audience, Yasuhide Nakamura said the purpose of his visit was to concert with the national committee on preparations for the upcoming conference. He said Cameroon was chosen to host the ninth conference because it is the first country in the world to produce a bilingual maternal health handbook. He hailed the willingness of the Ministry of Public Health to host the Conference.
The Maternal and Child Health Handbook is a manual that contains health information for women during pregnancy, delivery, postpartum as well as during child upbringing up till the age of five years. The booklet is important as it serves as an identity for the baby because it contains the history of the baby from the womb to delivery and after. The main objective of the MCH is to promote the use of the MCH Handbook nation-wide.
Cameroon is among the nearly 30 countries in which the MCH handbook is either in the pilot phase or in nationwide use. The MCH handbook adapted from Japan HS, was introduced in Cameroon in May 2010 and is presently in use in three pilot health districts covering 40 health facilities. While in Cameroon, Professor Yasuhide Nakamura also had audiences with the UNICEF, Rotary International and the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and the Family. He equally visited health facilities that are using the handbook. They are the University Teaching Hospital (CHU), Etoug-Ebe Baptist Hospital and the Biyem-Assi District Hospital, all in Yaounde.
