The National Council of Pharmacists has expressed interest to carry out testing as well as vaccination against the COVID-19.

Government recently acquired over 500 thousand doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China and the AstraZeneca from the United Kingdom which have all been distributed across the ten regions as more doses are expected.

The administration of the vaccine has been preceded by massive sensitization of the population and the National Council of Pharmacists has now added its voice to that campaign.

During a press conference on April 22, the President of the National Council of Pharmacists, Dr Frank Dange Nana Sambou alongside his peers affirmed their commitment to accompany government in the vaccination drive.

While reassuring the populations of the personal involvement of pharmacists for the smooth running of the vaccination, the president of the said Council urged Cameroonians to follow the example of members of the government who have been vaccinated.

In no country in the world can a government have the agenda of decimating its population. On the contrary, this government is taking appropriate measures and methods to make society better and better. This is done more practically by building hospitals of several categories by equipping these hospitals with a good technical platform. Even more so when it comes to a pandemic, the strongest are taken to reduce the pandemic to its simplest form.

“Voluntary vaccination is part of the Covid-19 response strategy. The National Council of Pharmacists of Cameroon approves the voluntary vaccination following the advice of the Scientific Council and NITAG which has defined the target groups namely; health personnel, vulnerable people over 50 with co-morbidities, teachers, defense and security forces, with the aim of creating immunogenicity within the population in order to stop the curve of the pandemic”, said Dr Frank Dange Nana Sambou.

The Council of Pharmacists went further to outline actions taken at their level to fight the pandemic since the first case in Cameroon was announced last year.

Among the actions taken are; the manufacture of hydroalcoholic gels, paracetamol, and vitamin C, ensured the advice and compliance with barrier measures while allowing the orientation of the patients tested positive towards the care centers and the cleaning and disinfection of the health centres. Then, they participated in the drafting of the protocol for handling and facilitating the importation of products against Covid-19. Likewise, pharmacists are currently looking for endogenous solutions.

The Council of Pharmacists equally announced that through a negotiation with the Ministry of Public Health, a public-private partnership has been reached the realization of the approved antigenic terms of reference which will be available in pharmacies within a month for massive testing and PCR tests will be carried out in private laboratories.