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. 2022 Mar 4:9:778075.
doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.778075. eCollection 2022.

Cardiac Surgery Development in Cameroon: Unexpected Challenges From a Socio-Political Crisis

Charles Mve Mvondo  1   2 , Alessandro Giamberti  3 , Marcelin Ngowe Ngowe  2 , Helen Anshoma Mbuoh  1 , Italo Milocco  1 , Hermann Nestor Tsague Kengni  4 , Silvia Cirri  5 , Alessandro Frigiola  3
Affiliations

Cardiac Surgery Development in Cameroon: Unexpected Challenges From a Socio-Political Crisis

Charles Mve Mvondo et al. Front Cardiovasc Med. .

Abstract

Despite the alarming and growing burden of cardiovascular diseases in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there is still a huge lack of specialised institutions in the region with a mean of one cardio-surgical unit for 33 million inhabitants. Despite the numerous efforts from humanitarian organisations made in recent years, the setting up of cardio-surgical units in the region remains challenging with regards to long-term sustainability. Indeed, besides the lack of financial resources, the insufficient local expertise in addition to the inadequate health infrastructure, unpredictable threats from external factors such as recurrent conflicts and humanitarian crises are still major concerns in an environment characterised by endemic socio-political instability. In Cameroon, located in the North West Anglophone region at 500 km from the capital, the cardiac centre of Shisong (CCS) is currently the lone cardio-surgical institution of the country. Fruit of a joint initiative of two Italian Non-governmental organisations namely, Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo (ABCnM) and Cuore Fratello (CF), and a local religious partner, the Tertiary Sisters of Saint Francis (TSSF), the CCS was faced with in the middle of a socio-political crisis that led to the urgent need of revision of the cardio-surgical project. The current paper reviews the impact of the ongoing socio-political crisis on the CCS over the past 3 years, in terms of clinical activities, staff perspectives, and long-term sustainability.

Keywords: cardiac surgery; development; political conflict; socio-political crisis; sub-Saharan Africa.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Surgical activities at the Shisong Cardiac Centre since 2019 (before and after relocation). The y-axis represents the number of cardiac surgeries.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geographic illustration of the location of the cardiac centre of Shisong (CCS) and the successive relocation site.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The bar graph shows the hospital mortality (%) rate after surgery for acquired heart disease (blue bar) and congenital heart disease (red bar). The green bar shows the rate of local staff surgical autonomy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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