By Boris Esono Nwenfor
BUEA, Cameroon – Health professionals have renewed their commitment to improving the health and survival of newborns through increased awareness of antenatal care, vaccination, and exclusive breastfeeding as Cameroon observed World Health Day on April 7.
Speaking during activities to mark the day, Dr Ebongo Zacheus, Director of Family Health in the Ministry of Public Health, stressed that these three interventions are vital to ensuring babies get a healthy start to life.
The first thing is to do what we are doing here, that is, sensitizing the population on the various packages about maternal and child health. That is the first thing, and when people are informed, they can also make informed decisions to access our healthcare facilities,” he said.
“Before the child is born, the child needs to be healthy, and after that child is born into this hostile milieu, we need to make sure that the child is protected, and one of the best cost-effective strategies we are using is the Extended Program of Immunization, which makes sure that all children 0 to 5 have access to vaccinations, proper vaccination coverages all over the country. And even before that, we have to make sure, as I said, we have to make sure that all pregnant women have access to antenatal care.”
He revealed that the Department of Family Health is intensifying efforts to reduce Cameroon’s neonatal mortality rate, which currently stands at 406 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) of 2018. The figures, while an improvement from past years, remain a major public health concern.
“90% of all these women who are in the process of procreation must have access to effective and quality Extended Program of Immunization services that provides not only the woman, the pregnant woman but also the future baby is going to be delivered into this hostile environment which is infested with all types of infections,” Dr Ebongo stressed.
“We have what we call Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illnesses, IMC, which prevents a child from common diseases like malaria, common diseases which have become very dangerous to our children, responsible for many deaths like malaria, pneumonia, anaemia, TB, diarrhoea, and even HIV through our PMTCT or Prevention of Conduct to Child Transmission of HIV.”
The Ministry of Public Health is rolling out community sensitization campaigns, improving supply chains for vaccines, and training healthcare workers to provide quality antenatal and postnatal care. Mobile clinics and outreach programs are also being deployed in rural areas to address disparities in health service delivery.
Dr Ebongo added: “All this put together with an integrated management system of both mother and childhood coupled with exclusive breastfeeding up to six months after birth and proper nutrition, these methods are very capital that we harness all these strategies together for us to achieve the targets set to us by WHO, that is bending the curve of maternal and neonatal child mortality in Cameroon.”
World Health Day 2025 is being observed under the global theme “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures,” which emphasizes health as a fundamental human right for all individuals, regardless of background or location. In Cameroon, it has served as a call to action for policymakers, healthcare providers, and families to work together in protecting the country’s youngest and most vulnerable.
