“(Business in Cameroon) - Till further notice,” the issuance of “technical notices for the importation of live animals, fresh or frozen and non-manufactured animal and fishery products” from “countries with active coronavirus outbreaks” is suspended. This is the information contained in an official release signed, last February 3, by Dr Taiga (photo), Cameroon’s Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries.
In the release, Dr Taiga instructs his staff to “take all the necessary measures to maintain active health surveillance by veterinary services throughout the country and to strengthen veterinary health inspections and controls at ports, airports and land borders and at the various health control posts.”
The coronavirus epidemic broke out on December 31, 2019, in China, before spreading to other countries. Animals (bats, snakes, camels, etc.) are the reservoirs for this virus and transmission from animals to humans and human-to-human have been proven.
To date, no cases have been reported in Cameroon but, the Minister of Public Health, Manaouda Malachie, has reassured that a response plan has already been launched in the country.
Let’s note that on January 28, 2020, the first Cameroonian to contract the coronavirus was found in China and is currently interned in a hospital in Jengzhou. His name is Pavel Daryl Sem Kenou, a 21-year-old Cameroonian student enrolled at the University of Yangtse. He contracted the virus during a stay in the Chinese city of Wuhan, considered as the epicenter of the outbreak.
Brice R. Mbodiam