Bamenda, Cameroon

Cameroon is a lower-middle income country in Western Africa. It experiences high endemic rates of malnutrition in children under-five and older. The national prevalence in children under-five with stunting and wasting is 31.7% and 5.2%, respectively. Malnutrition persists as children grow with 23.9% of children and adolescents with undernutrition. At the same time, an increasing number of children and adolescents are developing overweight and obesity, 12.7% and 2.8% respectively. As awareness of chronic diseases has increased, there has been a coinciding increase in the number of diagnoses of childhood cancer. Each year, Cameroon expects approximately 1,400 children and adolescents between the age of 0-14 years to be diagnosed with cancer, but precise numbers are not available due to limited access to care, education, and documentation in a national registry.

IIPAN Center & Collaborators

Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services (CBCHS) is a non-profit, healthcare organization offering holistic care for patients. The IIPAN partnership supports three hospitals: Mbingo Baptist Hospital, Baptist Hospital Mutengene, and Mboppi Baptist Hospital. On average, CBCHS diagnoses 115 children with cancer each year. There are 27 inpatient pediatric oncology beds and about 9 pediatric outpatient visits each day.

The implementation of the IIPAN nutrition program is overseen by Dr. Glenn Mbah Afungwuchi. A nurse by training, Dr. Afungwuchi provides psychosocial care for patients and families and promotes pediatric cancer awareness and advocacy in Cameroon. He is assisted by an IIPAN-trained nutritionist, Tombuh Happiness Sui, who is part of the multidisciplinary pediatric oncology team. Together, they provide incremental support to the hospital staff on optimal nutrition therapy for children, ensure continuous nutritional assessments, and provide family and patient nutrition education at each center. Weekly food demonstrations are conducted with families to teach them how to make highly nutritious meals with locally available foods of the season.

Site Challenges

• Limited access to most essential nutritional supplies.
• Extensive education is pressing for most families on nutrition basics.
• Children and their families experience prolonged travel times to treatment facilities often interrupting meal times.
• Limited supplies shift reliance to homemade preparations to deliver recommended nutrition therapy.

Site Needs

• Consistent supplies for medical nutrition therapy, including RUTF, F-75, F-100, specialized formulas and multivitamin micronutrient powder.
• Increased nutrition capacity to serve the increase in pediatric illness throughout each hospital.
• Support for family-based nutrition education initiatives.
• Establish a network to extend nutritional knowledge and support to the community setting.

(Image Source: www.worldchildcancer.org)