Mass Distribution of LLINs Planned for Cameroon in 2015

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 6

Cameroon and the Global Fund speak out on the issue of discrimination and violence against LGBT

ABSTRACT The Global Fund will finance a mass distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets in Cameroon in 2015. Cameroon and the Global Fund condemn discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Funding from the Global Fund will be used for a nationwide campaign in Cameroon, starting in 2015, to distribute up to 12 million long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, which will provide every family in the country with protection against mosquitoes. More than eight million nets distributed in an earlier campaign in 2011 will be starting to wear out by the time the 2015 campaign is launched.

This information was contained in a news release issued by the Global Fund on 18 September.

“The Global Fund is strongly committed to supporting the net distribution campaign and will concentrate its resources and efforts on purchasing the long lasting nets, allowing Cameroon to distribute them throughout the country,” said Lelio Marmora, the head of the Global Fund unit for Africa and the Middle East.

Malaria is the leading cause of death among children under five in Cameroon.

Most of the news release dealt with the announcement of the Government of Cameroon that it was increasing its budget for purchasing ARVs (see GFO article).

Cameroon’s Minister of Health Andre Mama Fouda said all people, regardless of ethnic origin and religious belief, and including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) in Cameroon, had unrestrained access to healthcare. “When somebody has a health problem, we treat the illness”, he said. “The right to treatment and to receiving healthcare is not in any way discriminatory.”

Mr Marmora said the Global Fund condemned all forms of violence against people because of sexual orientation or perceived HIV status. He said that discrimination and criminalisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people undermines efforts to defeat the HIV epidemic.

These comments were made in the wake of the murder of Eric Ohena Lembembe, a prominent Cameroonian journalist and LGBT activist, in July, which drew widespread international condemnation.