From Fundación Recover, Hospitales para África, we are launching the health campaign Change-m, Cameroon, with which we want to reach more than a thousand people over the course of a year. The project focuses on the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in three health centres in the country: the Louis Kremp Health Centre, the Sainte Raphaëlle Marie Medical Centre and the Monavebe Health Centre.

This initiative is made possible thanks to the work of volunteer medical staff specialised in internal medicine, cardiology, family medicine and laboratory work. This team of volunteers, led by Dr Miguel Ángel Sauras, has developed a software programme that will enable technical staff in Cameroon to carry out case assessments. Furthermore, this technological development will facilitate recommendations on diet and necessary activity, as well as initial pharmacological treatment.

After completing a health and lifestyle background questionnaire, the technicians input the data and the tool provides a risk index for developing cardiovascular disease. This will enable even those technicians with more limited knowledge of cardiovascular diseases to handle these cases effectively.

Given the high prevalence of high blood pressure in Cameroon, which reached 30.9% in 2019, the government has made it a priority to reduce premature mortality from preventable diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure to 10%. For this reason, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes will be the two main cardiovascular diseases that we will address through Change-m.

With this project, Fundación Recover is once again focusing on prevention as one of the main pillars of its work in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The importance of prevention
“The best experience has been seeing once again how healthcare staff and facility managers are extremely open and receptive to new ideas and programmes to improve the lives of their population. Being in Cameroon has changed my perspective on health education. In Spain, it has long been known and understood that prevention saves lives and, furthermore, reduces costs. In some African countries, the population and health services are more focused on a reactive model, and it is very difficult to change that inertia, especially among the population,” explains Dr Javier Sánchez Ayuso.

Recover Foundation would like to express special thanks to Rovi Laboratories, to the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine and to Hyperion for making this campaign possible.