COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon

Over the past few weeks, the State has scrambled to mobilize in response to the mounting COVID-19 cases in urban zones, focusing less on suburban areas hence limited availability of resources in their dispensaries/health centres to control the current Pandemic. Also, for cultural reasons, some people believe in traditional medicines and will only visit health centres when their conditions aggravate and healthcare workers attend to them with little or no preparedness thereby putting themselves at risk of infection.

With the recent coronavirus scare, many people are running to the local stores to stock up on hand sanitizers. This has caused the cost of the sanitizers to skyrocket and many local stores have run out of them. This inturn has added to the difficulty of the local population to access and/or afford them.

At Mboalab, it is our view that all new health tools for life-threatening diseases, including COVID-19 must be developed as global/local public goods and made available to all who need them. That is why we see the need to provide PPE to those most at-risk in the  population; healthcare workers in suburban zones, using low cost and accessible resources.

Our response

Through our COVID-19 Management and Information Department in the Lab, we were able to screen and evaluate simple, open source protocols for DIY alcohol-based hand sanitizer following the FDA recommendations in response to COVID -19 Emergency. This recipe was prepared by getting reagents from local drug stores and the resulting product was able to effectively meet the needs of the local population of Mbankomo.

In order to successfully combat this pandemic, we must accelerate research, in a collaborative and coordinated manner, share knowledge and data in resource-constrained areas which are fragile and already under strain (crowded/suburban zones), where social distancing and enhanced hygiene measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 will be difficult to implement.

To this effect, we have successfully prepared Hydroalcoholic hand sanitizer using a simple open source protocol found here for the use by the local population and prototyped Medical Visor, Face mask, Automatic soap and water dispenser to help limit the spread of this Pandemic. From these products all made in Mboalab, we are planning to make kits and donate to neighbouring local health centres to protect health care providers , being one of the most at-risk groups.