Already accustomed to remaining in garish unsanitary conditions generated by themselves, and an urban and rural sanitation policy with very insufficient returns due to the government's demonstrated incapacity to properly manage household waste, the beginnings of the devastating effects of the Covid-19 disease in Asia kept Cameroonians indifferent. The danger was very distant, we thought; very distant to constitute a concern. Indeed, as in the time of Noah, we drank, we danced, we even ate without worrying about washing our hands because we thought, it is not dirt with which we are used to living together that can lead us to the death.
When evil arrived in Europe, Africans began to worry. When it arrived in France, a good part of Cameroonians knew that it was already at the door despite the fact that there were some who developed superfluous theories which stipulated that this virus would not develop in hot environments. This was without knowing the characteristics of an unknown virus which not only took everyone by surprise, but which came to remind Africans and Cameroonians in particular that it is time to return to respecting basic health rules namely washing your hands, no longer only for those who had made it a habit to eat or relieve themselves without washing their hands, keep a distance of at least 1 meter, no longer only for those who have made it a habit to kiss and greet each other with dirty hands, and finally among many other health measures, wearing a compulsory mask to avoid ejecting saliva anywhere, and no matter how.
Mandatory changes imposed by the pandemic
COVID 19 has come to disrupt habits, impose its demands, create torpor in hearts, and distrust between brothers. Those who were praised because they came from outside had become people to be avoided at all costs because they would be carriers of a disease created by "whites" without taking into account the fact that a planetary problem is never the consequence of the choices of a category of people or a “race”, but of this bad tendency that Men have to embark on a frantic search for the satisfaction of their selfishness.
The Covid-19 disease has become established in Cameroonian realities. A context of bad mentalities, lax management of public affairs, unnecessary hugs, and marginalization of traditional medicine.
Also read : Sanitation of health facilities and management of hospitals waste in Cameroon.
The source of the disease was less important than the measures adopted not only to stay healthy, but above all to contribute to the eradication of this disease. Cameroonians have started to respect basic hygiene rules again in spite of themselves. Hand washing points were everywhere. Even corners deemed unsanitary have been cleaned. Covid-19 even made it possible to witness one of the best crisis managements in Cameroon in terms of communication. It was similar to that practiced in Western countries with the only difference that they do not wait for pandemics before communicating constantly and timely. Every day the populations were informed about the progression of the disease throughout the Territory. Covid-19 has allowed the government to respond favourably to what the people have always asked them to know: constant reporting of their management. This consistency in the reporting, also allowed after the fall in the prevalence rate of this disease in Cameroon, to highlight the scabrous management which has always been criticized.
The corona virus disease has certainly caused a lot of pains, but it has still demonstrated the need for traditional pharmacopoeia, the importance of respecting hygiene rules, and the constant reporting of the management of public affairs.
The evil has passed and the Cameroonians have returned to their old habits. The points reserved for hand washing have disappeared as has the compulsory wearing of masks and others. We can now get closer and kiss. We can even allow ourselves to insult an illness that we did not know about, but which we were able to tame thanks in particular to the multiple benefits of traditional pharmacopoeia. The source and cause was distant, but it was resolved in part by a local solution without neglecting the assistance of multiple international partners. The Covid-19 disease has certainly caused a lot of damage, but it has shown us a double fragility: that of our human existence, and that of our health systems which must continually be reinvented to be better able to cope with others major health problems of our time.
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