Cmr welcomes contribution of Merck labs against schistosomiasis

The Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda, welcomed the contribution of Merck Pharmaceutical Laboratories into his country in the fight against schistosomiasis, a tropical disease considered most widespread in Africa after malaria.

Speaking Wednesday evening in Yaounde, the capital of the country on the occasion of the visit of the German firm officials, he said that Cameroon has benefited since 2008, of a donation of 23.8 million tablets of Praziquantel, a drug which permitted the treatment of more than 2.3 million children from schistosomiasis and intestinal worms.

According to statistics from the national Programme to combat schistosomiasis and intestinal helminthiasis, 2 million Cameroonians are parasitized by the bilharzias, 5 million are exposed to the risk of infection, and 10 million are infected with intestinal worms especially in areas of Adamawa, Centre, the far North, Littoral, Northern, and the southwest.