Cameroon needs 6,517 multipurpose community health workers for optimal health coverage the Ministry of Public Health informed on its Facebook page. The figure is the result of a simulation carried out in 161 of the country’s 200 health districts with a modeling tool designed with the help of the US President's Malaria Initiative on behalf of the government.

The simulation shows that of Cameroon's nearly 30 million inhabitants, 4.5 million live in geographical areas requiring a denser supply of community health workers.

The study is a response to the needs set out in the National Development Strategy (SND 30), which stipulates that no inhabitant should have to travel more than 5 km to find a health service.

For Professor  Eugène Sobngwi, Director of Health Care Organization and Technology, who presided over the presentation of the study in Yaoundé, the aim is to offer quality and equitable health services to everyone with the “full participation of the population".

Unlike Community Health Workers, who are deployed for specific programs, multi-purpose community health workers will be trained to respond to all community health needs.

According to data from the Ministry of Public Health, Cameroon currently needs 50,000 health workers.

L.A.