Expanding COVID-19 Testing and Treatment in Littoral, Cameroon

Overview

Providing COVID-19 testing and treatment to Cameroon’s vulnerable population is important to responding to the COVID-19 epidemic. The Bangue District has a population of about 385,000 people and lies within Cameroon’s Littoral Region, which has about 5.7 million. Recognizing the lack of demand for COVID-19 testing in Littoral communities, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) conducted a formative assessment in December 2021 to better understand why people were not getting tested and vaccinated. They selected the Bangue health district, with high number of COVID-19 cases, to conduct community-level formative assessment and promotion of COVID-19 testing and treatment services.

The EGPAF Catalyzing COVID-19 Action (CCA) project team interviewed key Cameroonian community leaders, religious leaders, traditional leaders, health district leaders, and community health workers (CHWs) to understand communities’ perceptions concerning COVID-19. The formative assessment gave insight into why Littoral residents were hesitant about receiving testing and vaccines. Reasons for hesitancy included: a belief that COVID-19 is a disease only for white Westerners; testing is only needed to travel; and concerns that Westerners put ingredients in vaccines to infect Africans with COVID-19.

In June 2022, the CCA team at EGPAF in Cameroon collaborated with the district lead to conduct a three-day campaign in the seven health areas of Bangue district to inform residents on the benefits of COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccination. The team comprised CHWs for sensitization and linkage-to-care, nurses to offer COVID-19 screening and vaccination, a lab tech for testing, and a medical district officer to provide treatment for those with COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Cameroonian Ministry of Health (MOH) was determined to scale up the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out across the country. Thus, trained MOH CHWs supplemented the EGPAF CCA team’s efforts.

The EGPAF team used a “test-anyone” model; testing any community member, regardless of symptoms, to identify and link anyone to care should they test positive for COVID-19. To target high catchment/density areas, the team deployed to markets, stadiums, bus stations, and outside churches and mosques during high-traffic days, including Friday through Sunday. The CCA team produced flyers and distributed them in these areas. They also used a megaphone to amplify key sensitization messages in the community. Of 360 tested, three were positive for COVID-19 and of those, two were asymptomatic. Moreover, 33 community members were vaccinated.