Cameroon

IN THE LOW-INCOME western African nation of Cameroon, where 48 percent of the population live below the national poverty line and where almost one-third of the people are unemployed, inequality continues to thrive. The lowest 10 percent of the population share less than two percent of national income, while the richest 10 percent possess 36.6 percent. Over half of Cameroon's population lives on less than $2 per day. Cameroon continues to be dominated by the agricultural economic sector, in which 70 percent of Cameroonians labor.

Democracy has made slow inroads in this country, but the ruling ethnic oligarchy has achieved relative stability by promoting the agricultural and petroleum sectors and through improved infrastructure. In conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Cameroonian officials have instituted economic reforms that include poverty reduction and increased privatization.

Cameroon's population suffers from low life expectancy, and the median age is 18.6 years. Some 41.7 percent of the population are under 14 years of age. Because Cameroonians have a 40.2 percent chance of not surviving to see their 40th birthday, only 3.3 percent live past the age of 65. Approximately 42 percent of the population have no sustainable access to an improved water supply, and 21 percent lack sustainable access to improved sanitation.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has become a major threat to Cameroonian health, and the 6.9 percent prevalence rate is a constant drain on the country's resources. By 2003 estimates, some 560,000 Cameroonians were living with HIV/AIDS, and 49,000 individuals had died from this disease. Other health problems include very high risks of contracting food and waterborne diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever. Under the guidance of the Carter Center, health officials and local groups have waged war against river blindness, which has affected an estimated 5.1 million Cameroonians. This debilitating disease is spread by bites of the blackflies that inhabit fast-flowing rivers.

In 1997 in conjunction with the Carter Center, Cameroon successfully eradicated Guinea worm disease, which is caused by contact with infected water. In some areas, vectorborne diseases such as malaria and yellow fever pose a serious threat, as do schistosomiasis and meningococcal meningitis. Health problems are complicated by the fact that Cameroon has only 0.1 physician and 2.6 hospital beds for every 1,000 people.

Children in Cameroon suffer disproportionately from poverty, and some 22.1 percent of Cameroonian children are malnourished. Infant mortality is estimated at 68.26 deaths per 1,000 live births. Poverty is responsible in great part for the mortality rate of 166 for children under the age of 5. Less than one-quarter of Cameroonian children receive oral rehydration therapy when necessary, and almost one-third lack access to affordable drugs. The result is that children die from what should be treatable diseases. Cameroon has improved its childhood immunization rates in recent years. In 2002, the measles immunization rate for infants was 62 percent, and the tuberculosis rate was 77 percent. By 2003, 61 percent of all children between the ages of 12 and 23 months had been immunized against measles, and 73 percent had received DPT3 immunizations.

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