The United States continues to invest in Cameroon’s fights against both COVID-19 and malaria. In December 2020, a project funded by the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), called Impact Malaria, donated equipment at a ceremony in Maroua. The donations will strengthen malaria case management and Cameroon’s health information system. More specifically, they will facilitate malaria testing, treatment, community outreach, surveillance monitoring, evaluation and infection control, and they will simultaneously boost COVID-19 prevention practices. Health providers, community health workers, and health facility laboratories working under Cameroon’s National Malaria Control Program received 300 tablet computers, 200 bicycles, 18 microscopes, and 200 infection prevention control (IPC) kits in this donation. Impact Malaria’s objective is to work with national malaria control programs to fight malaria and save lives by strengthening the diagnosis, treatment, and drug-based prevention of malaria, especially for children and pregnant women. The tablet computers will support data collection, reporting, and analysis at community and health facilities. The bicycles will improve community health workers outreach, and the microscopes will enhance the laboratory’s testing capacity. The 200 IPC kits were procured with U.S funds to support COVID-19 response. The kits complement the U.S.-sponsored pandemic response training of 819 health providers in 80 health facilities in Cameroon in 2020.
U.S. malaria assistance focuses on the North and Far North regions because these two regions have the highest malaria mortality rates. The United States has been active in supporting Cameroon through the President’s Malaria Initiative since 2017, investing roughly 65 million dollars (about 36 billion FCFA) to provide life-saving medications, bed nets, training and social behavior change programs and more. This support is aligned with Cameroon’s National Strategic Plan for malaria control in coordination with the National Malaria Control Program. The National Strategic Plan’s mission is to ensure universal access to effective and affordable malaria prevention and treatment intervention for all Cameroonians, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized. Each year, since 2018, 1.5 million children under five years are protected against malaria during the rainy season through the support provided by the American people in Cameroon.