About Bawa

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Public Health
There is no water or sanitation system currently in Bawa. The nearest river serves as a common source of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing utensils. Small rivers may cross several compounds such that contamination from upstream is likely to serve as a source of disease downstream.

Most houses have outdoor latrines which are shallow holes dug near the compound and covered with a few wooden sticks as support. Flies that may carry parasite cysts and eggs are usually abundant in the proximity of latrines. Also people frequently tend to defecate in bushes while in their farms or traveling about the village.

As is the case with many villages in Cameroon, Bawa is an endemic focus of many tropical diseases including malaria, amebiasis, giardiasis, and helminth infections such as ascariasis, hookworm infection, and schistosomiasis to name a few. Despite the endemicity of these diseases, among which malaria causes the greatest mortality, there is no current control program in place to deal with these diseases in Bawa. Also, there is no primary health clinic in Bawa. The nearest clinic is over 6 miles away making it difficult for patients from Bawa as there is no ambulance. Critically ill patients must walk or be carried for medical care; thus many people die in Bawa because of inaccessibility to primary care.