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Cameroon Reports Polio Cases Amid COVID Scare

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE, CAMEROON - Cameroon says two polio cases discovered in the
   capital, Yaoundé, three weeks ago are a consequence of people refusing
   to inoculate their children for fear of being infected by COVID-19. The
   central African state has redeployed health teams to all towns and
   villages to ask parents to vaccinate their children.

   Cameroon says it has dispatched health workers to 360 hospitals as part
   of an awareness campaign against polio. Tetanye Ekoe, president of
   Cameroon's National Polio Certification Commission, said the awareness
   teams will teach communities to observe hygiene and to intensify
   routine immunization, and epidemiological surveillance.

   He said the discovery of two type 2 polio cases in Yaoundé three weeks
   ago should serve as a wake-up call for people who have turned their
   backs on polio vaccination. He said it is an illusion to think that the
   government is hiding behind vaccinations to harm its citizens. Ekoe
   said he is calling on all Cameroonians to inoculate their children and
   convince others to take their children to vaccination centers. He said
   the emergence of polio shows a weak collective immunity.

   Ekoe said some polio cases may still be undetected because many parents
   have not been bringing their children to the hospitals out of fear of
   COVID-19 infection.

   Cameroon was declared polio-free in 2015, but in 2019, the government
   of the central African state announced a resurgence on its northern
   border with Nigeria.

   The new polio cases were reported in Cameroon in the middle of the
   second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

   This month Cameroon's Public Health Ministry reported that the number
   of people testing positive for COVID-19 had increased from 26,000 to
   39,000 between January and February.

   In December, the government said more than 240,000 children had not
   received polio vaccines since COVID-19 cases were first reported in
   Cameroon last March. The government said parents were refusing to take
   their children to the hospitals for inoculation because of fear of the
   coronavirus.

   Ekoe said rumors last month that the government would secretly
   vaccinate all Cameroonians against COVID-19 further discouraged people
   who are scared of the vaccine from visiting hospitals.

   Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute denied in a message Friday that
   Cameroon is vaccinating all its citizens who visit hospitals against
   COVID-19. Ngute said Cameroon is still negotiating to buy a million
   coronavirus vaccine doses, which will not be administered to people who
   do not want them.

   "Once this vaccine become available, vaccination shall be voluntary,"
   he said. "I will like to note that although vaccination is voluntary
   and not compulsory, the government encourages all Cameroonians to be
   vaccinated when the time comes in order to acquire the immunity that
   will enable our community to protect itself against COVID-19 for a
   return to normalcy."

   On Aug. 25, the World Health Organization announced that wild
   poliovirus had been eradicated from Africa after four consecutive years
   without any reported cases and massive efforts to immunize children.
   The WHO said polio-free Africa was a historic moment, moving the world
   closer to achieving global polio eradication.

   The WHO statement said only Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to see
   wild poliovirus transmission.

   Polio affects mostly young children. Cameroon did not say if the new
   cases were detected in children or adults.