Purpose: Despite free distribution of HIV/AIDs medication to patients, the expenditures on HIV/AIDS care and treatment can still be catastrophic to patients and their households due to the costs of other components (indirect cost) of care. This work was aimed at investigating the determinants of catastrophic health expenditure and the coping strategies for households with people living with HIV/AIDS in the Nkambe District Hospital, Cameroon. Methodology: Data were collected using an administered questionnaire and secondary data from patients’ files, analyzed using frequencies and logistic regression. A convenient and purposive sample of 346 participants were enrolled (281 outpatients and 65 inpatients). Results: Results show that the incidence of CHE was 20.3% for outpatient and 66.7% for inpatient visits, considering a 40% threshold. Factors that determine CHE identified were: use of motorbike as mode of transport (OR = 2.058, p-value = 0.05), divorced (OR 4.354, p-value = 0.033), borrowing (OR = 2.229, p-value = 0.027) and support from family members (OR = 2.367, p-value = 0.001).  The most common coping strategies adopted by participants were increasing working hours and support from friends and relatives with half of the participants seeing these strategies as sustainable. Conclusion: It was concluded that the subsidization of ART services is not sufficient to eliminate the economic burden of treatment on HIV patients as many households still experienced CHE. Recommendations: The study recommends implementing effective community dispensation of ARVs, Multimonth dispensation as measures to curb transportation cost. Also, implementation of the elimination of user fee policy for other HIV services. Finally, accelerating the process of universal health coverage in Cameroon will go a long way to help HIV patients and their households.

Like any vaccine, COVID-19 vaccines can cause side effects, most of which are mild or moderate and go away within a few days on their own. Results of clinical trials however show that more serious or long-lasting side effects are possible. This work aims at comparing the risk of dying from COVID-19 vaccination with dying from COVID-19 infection. It made use of secondary data from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Worldometer. Percentages, relative risk, and odds ratios were used to analyze the results. The results showed that 0.0017% deaths were attributed to COVID-19 vaccination and 0.0046% death to COVID-19 infection. The relative risk and odds ratio of dying from COVID-19 vaccination and infection was 0.38 and 0.137 respectively. Both figures are far less than 1 indicating that the risk and odd of dying are by far lower among people vaccinated (cases) than amongst none vaccinated people (control). The results equally showed that COVID-19 infections also led to large treatment costs for the country and individuals leading to economic depression and enormous consequences in the country and the world at large. This study, therefore, concludes that the risk of dying from COVID-19 vaccination is about 3 times lower than dying from COVID-19 infection especially amongst elderly people. This work thus recommends massive COVID-19 vaccination especially for the elderly who are most likely to die from COVID-19 infection and less likely to die from the side effect of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Purpose: Even though ART services in Cameroon are highly subsidized, people living with HIV/AIDS still incur a non-ART drug cost.  This piece of paper is aimed at investigating the health service utilization pattern and the outpatient and inpatient costs incurred by people living with HIV/AIDS in the Nkambe District Hospital. Methodology: A single facility-based cross-sectional survey was conducted between February and June 2018 at Nkambe District Hospital. A micro-costing analysis was used to determine the direct and indirect cost of treatment and access. Data were collected using an administered questionnaire and secondary data from patients’ files, analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). A convenient and purposive sample of 346 participants were enrolled (281 outpatients and 65 inpatients). Results: Result shows that, majority of participants (97.5%) were in their follow up visit. 83.3% had been on ART for more than 1year, while more than half (59.5%) visited the hospital every after 3months for ART refilled. 80% of admitted cases were admitted for the first time. An average direct cost of treatment access was 2108.89FCFA ($3.47) for outpatient and 30414.31FCFA ($54.12) for inpatient, giving an annual average cost of 8435.56FCFA ($15) and 121657.24 FCFA ($216.5), respectively. Conclusion: This work concluded that the of ART services is not sufficient to eliminate the economic burden of treatment on HIV patients. Recommendations: Implementing effective community dispensation of ARVs and other differentiated care models like multi-month scripting and home dispensations well as creating more HIV treatment centers is vital. Also, implementation of a user fee policy for other HIV services. Finally, accelerating the process of universal health coverage in Cameroon will go a long way to help HIV patients and their households.

Introduction: Women in most sub-Saharan countries bear children at younger ages, have larger families, and make much less use of family planning. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest rate of contraceptive use in the world. There are both modern and traditional methods of Family planning. Throughout history, the traditional family planning practices used to space children have been rich and varied. Purpose: This work sets out to investigate the diverse traditional family planning methods used by women in the Bamenda Municipality and the determinants of their choices. Methods: A mix of descriptive and exploratory research designs were used. The purposive sampling technique was used to identify 100, participants residing in Bamenda Municipality who were married/cohabiting, aged 21-49 years, and whose last child was ≤ 5 years old. The multinomial logit model, chi-square, frequencies, percentages, and charts were used for the analysis. An interview administered questionnaire was administered to women of childbearing age who were not on any modern contraceptive method. Findings: Results showed that the local family planning methods used by women in the Bamenda Municipality were; withdrawal, lactational, calendar, cervical mucus, and douches methods. Other locally used products presumed by these women to help prevent conception were; bicarbonate, honey, thyme,  parsley, herbs, lemon, cola drink, alakata pepper, alcohol, hot water, salt, vinegar, and whisky. Results further showed that age, age at first marriage, number of children, and the fear of side effects all significantly influenced women’s choice of withdrawal and calendar method over other methods of family planning. Conclusion: It can be concluded that, the most frequently used traditional contraceptive method by women in the Bamenda Municipality are; calendar (70%), withdrawal (58%), and lactational method(45%) whose choices over other methods especially over modern methods was mostly due to the fear of side effects of the modern method. It is recommended further research be carried out to investigate and establish the efficacy of the common products used by these women.