CNN's "Cameroon’s 'Cursed' Children" Report - A Rebuttal by a Cameroonian Medical Doctor

By Valentine NGWA, St. James University Hospital - Leeds, UK

I have read with keen interest, Dr Sanjay Gupta’s take on various health related issues in the rural parts of Cameroon, initially wondering what his real intentions were. One could easily misconstrue his intentions as being Information, Education/Entertainment and Communication (IEC), which I believe are those of a genuine journalist. However, I finally realised Sanjay Gupta’s primary assignment is that of portraying Cameroon/Africa as  the origin of many of the world’s diseases; as a land where diseases easily spread from animals to man due to their supposedly close co-habitation.

Nowhere is this truer than in this article on Buruli ulcer in Akonolinga, Cameroon in which Medical science has been totally insulted;  an article which should cause anyone calling himself a trained medical doctor to bow his head in shame. And I will go on to tell you why I think so.

First, let us start with the name of the disease. Sanjay Gupta said this;

As I visited the clinic, I learned they had given this disease a name: Buruli.

Now, the name Buruli was NOT coined by the people of Akonolinga. In the 1960s, many of such cases occurred in Buruli County (now called Nakasongola District) in Uganda and that is where the disease got its name from. And I will trace the history of Buruli Ulcer (BU) below.

Now, Sanjay Gupta also had this to say.

As a doctor, it was amazing to see this previously unrecorded disease slowly become deciphered.

He obviously needed some more schooling on this. The first recorded cases of this disease were in 1897 by Sir Albert Cook, a British Physician working at the Mengo Hospital Kampala, Uganda. Again in 1948, Professor Peter MacCallum in Australia described this disease in six patients in the Bairnsdale area near Melbourne; He and his team were the first to isolate the causative organism. That is why in Southern Australia, BU is still referred to as Bairnsdale Ulcer.

In the 1960s, due to the occurrence of many cases in Buruli district, it was named as such. And since 1980, the disease has rapidly emerged in many parts of the world such that in 1997, after encountering patients with the disease while visiting Cote D’Ivoire, Dr Hiroyoshi Nakajima who was then Director-General of WHO announced the deployment of a coalition of international efforts against Buruli Ulcer. In February 1998, WHO formed the Global Buruli Ulcer Initiative (GBUI) to coordinate BU control and research and in July 1998 WHO organised the first BU conference.

In May 2004, the world Health assembly adopted Resolution WHA57.1 on BU and today more than 40 NGOs, Research Institutions and foundations are participating in the GBUI.

Is it willful ignorance then for Sanjay Gupta to describe BU as ‘Previously unrecorded disease’?

And here he potrays his real intentions;

It was also a fascinating glimpse into the very real connection between animals, plants and humans. Not only is the Buruli causing pathogen likely from an animal, but the medication used to treat it is from a local plant.

I find it amazing that someone who had no clue on what Buruli Ulcer is already knows that there is a connection between animals, plants and humans. Suffice to say, it is never too late to educate. The causative organism for BU is the bacteria Mycobacterium ulcerans  which is of the same family with the causative organism for TB and Leprosy and this was discovered way back in 1948 by Professor Peter MacCallum and his team in far away Australia. Current evidence shows that the infection is transmitted through abraided skin after contact with contaminated water or soil while the evidence for transmission by insects is still very weak; however, the scientific community waits anxiously for this evidence because this will mean it is the first Mycobacteria to be transmitted by insects. Readers might want to read more on the WHO fact sheet on BU revised in 2007.

I find the next paragraphs fascinating;

‘Now, if you think what you are reading is too far fetched, you may be interested to know I sat down with an educated medical anthropologist with her PHD, named Karen Saylors, who explained all of this to me. Along with researchers associated with Johns Hopkins, they are studying the origins of Buruli.’……

‘Instead, Karen has busied herself studying the possibility that Buruli may in fact be a microbacteria that is zoonotic, spread from animal to human.’

Studying the origins of Buruli Ulcer? The conclusion has been made and the study designed by the Medical Anthropologist to fit it. And we are supposed to clap for the myth that has been solved. Some people make me laugh!!

Now the Doctor said this;

‘As it has many similarities to a staph infection, which can cause flesh to be ulcerated and "eaten" appearing, the doctors have started using powerful antibiotics with good success.’

    Doctors did not just ‘start’ using antibiotics for BU. Combination antibiotics for the treatment of BU has been known for ages; after all it is a Mycobacterial infection - use your medical knowledge for God’s sake!! And should I remind Sanjay Gupta that World Health Assembly resolution 57.1 chapter2.2 encourages member states to intensify research to develop tools to diagnose, treat and prevent Buruli Ulcer. I wonder if he bothered finding out if Cameroon, as a member state of the WHA, is complying with this resolution. Or he probably believes it is a country of ignorant people who need westerners to come and tell them what transpires in their own backyard!

And as to the cause, Sanjay Gupta says this;

‘I also learned something that stunned me — what many in this town believe is the origin of Buruli. Witchcraft’.

Medical myths just like myths in many other discplines are nothing new and that happens the world over. After all, have we not heard supposedly enlightened movie stars blaming China’s earth quake as a punishment from a supreme being for China’s maltreatment of the Tibetans, or the 2004 Tsunami as a punishment for the sexual immorality and child pornography in the exhotic holiday resorts in Thailand or former Israeli PM’s stroke as his punishment for compromise on Gaza?

And if Sanjay Gupta had taken the time to find out the African’s cosmology of Health in an attempt to understand some aspects of their culture; an aspect of Medical sociology which is vital for any doctor venturing into Africa in whatever capacity, then he wouldn’t have been stunned! Again, he must have wondered ‘why bother?’

And of course Sanjay Gupta drew his conclusion on the supposed transmission of Buruli Ulcer from animal to humans;

‘And, if we look deep enough, we find this is in fact the case with many diseases.’

This is quite sickening! And to think that CNN will publish such rubbish is to show how much one needs to be careful about the things he reads and watches and especially to protect the vulnerable population from such   display of ignorance in the guise of information and Education!

Valentine NGWA
St. James University Hospital
Leeds, UK

Click here for my 2006 interview with Dr. Ngwa on the Brain Drain phenomenon within the medical profession in Cameroon.

Comments

[Rosemary Ekosso]

Gupta's piece is a classic example of careless journalism fuelled by prejudice and deliberate, unremitting ignorance.

[Samka]

Interesting,I came across Sanjay Gupta's piece on CNN's homepage and remember reading it with religious certitude.And the numerous comments that succeeded it indicates how Gupta took many for a ride.The blind leading the blind.

Thanx doc for throwing light on this.This is another case of people who think they know more about Africa than Africans themselves.And the western media,CNN in particular will hurriedly do what they know how to do best,reckless publishing without fact finding especially when it comes to Africa.SHAME ON THEM.

[UnitedstatesofAfrica]

Dr. Valentine Ngwa, may God bless you for your service to Cameroon and the continent of Africa as a whole.

This is Western propaganda at its finest fueled by the monstrosity that is CNN

I was watching snippets of this CNN documentary on Cameroon on Anderson 360 and Anderson Cooper had the audacity to say that AIDS originated in the jungles of Africa and the African animals passed it on to man.

Suffice to say, I changed the channel.

[Macadamia Cake]

You know that the corporate media in the USA is ratings-driven and not truth-driven. The easiest source of sensational stories to boost such ratings is Africa, because they expect that there would be no response, if such stories prove to be inaccurate. Wrong, there has been instant and massive backlash worldwide about this inaccurate story.

No, UnitedstatesofAfrica, this is not so much about Western Propaganda as the profit motive awry.

[UnitedstatesofAfrica]

Macadamia, with due respect, I vehemently disagree with the last paragraph of your write-up. Deeply rooted in the "profit motive awry" is Western propaganda

You are the same person who said that such despicable news stories are done by CNN to boost ratings. What do Americans want to watch? stories like these. Stories in which, American doctors march into the jungles of Africa and try to sensitise primitive Africans. Stories in which Americans are presented as superior in health-related issues while Africans are archaic, and cling to witchcraft to explain the existence of disastrous diseases. Stories in which, American doctors use their exquisite skills to discover that the root of AIDS can be traced in the jungles of Africa. These are the stories they want to see.

And have you asked yourself why Americans want to see these stories? to continue to spread the racial Western propaganda of the white man's superiority over "primitive" Africans.

Profit? yes
Western propaganda? even greater

[SJ]

Gupta and Cooper are continuing the work and narrative of Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness." It is congenital for the whiteman to de-humanize Africans.

This de-humanization has a healthy and wealthy history that the ancestors of Cooper (and Gupta, in his deluded mind), have traced and mapped over centuries. It had to be sufficiently and ruthlessly deployed in the collective psyche of both the victims and victimizers for Africans to have been made and kept slaves for 500 years as they built the basis for the wealth the CNN uses today to continue their evil work.

On another note, I wonder if they ever spoke of Cameroun Republic as an "island of peace and stability" in any of the CNN reporting. If not, I am ready to recommend a new PR firm for Biya Paul.

[Achiri]

Sanjay should try doing something in his native India where witchcraft is even more prevalent.The report is a complete disgrace to the medical corp and to investigative journalism.Absolutely no background research done.I believe the article was written even before they got into the "jungle".

[Stephen Carter]

Dear Dr Valentine, you are even more deluding than the targets of your vehemence. You simply "scribed" a WHO review article on Buruli. There is no doubt that Nathan Wolfe, who was traveling with Dr Gupta, has investigated the same WHO paper you so diligently scribed, making it seem as if it were your own thinking. Shameless you are. Dr Nathan Wolfe who has published in numerous peer reviewed scientific journals is investigating the origins of Buruli. Had you bothered to read the blog post instead of immediateoly starting your copying of the WHO article, perhaps it would have made more sense.

[Stephen Carter]

Dear Dr Valentine, you are even more deluding than the targets of your vehemence. You simply "scribed" a WHO review article on Buruli. There is no doubt that Nathan Wolfe, who was traveling with Dr Gupta, has investigated the same WHO paper you so diligently scribed, making it seem as if it were your own thinking. Shameless you are. Dr Nathan Wolfe who has published in numerous peer reviewed scientific journals is investigating the origins of Buruli. Had you bothered to read the blog post instead of immediateoly starting your copying of the WHO article, perhaps it would have made more sense.

[UnitedstatesofAfrica]

Mr. Carter,

I knew it wouldn't be long before you lunatic advocates of Western supremacist theories penetrate this blog and start clanking your heads in protest.

I am appalled by your audacity to satirise Dr. Ngwa because, in your opinion, he passively "scribed" a WHO review article on Buruli. Dr. Ngwa did nothing but write a rebuttal to this sloppy journalism and backed up his facts by citing an existing WHO review. The focus of this rebuttal should not be shifted from the Western Media's dehumanisation of Africans to an WHO review. Nice try buddy, but I won't let that slide.

You even have the effrontery and the cheek to be moaning and whining about the manner in which Dr. Ngwa mentions this WHO review. When Dr. Gupta and his gang of ethnocentric assholes marched into Cameroon and made false assertions, why didn't they cite a WHO review to back up their shallow statements? Why didn't Dr. Gupta look into WHO reviews to see if the "Buruli" disease was really an "unrecorded disease" as he claimed? before Dr. Gupta said the term "Buruli" was coined by the people of Akonolinga, why didn't he look into WHO reviews to see if the rubbish he is saying is true or not?

With due respect Mr. Carter, the Western media is not a slave master and Africa is no slave plantation. This is the 21st century and such sloppy and racist journalism should not be tolerated.

Dr. Ngwa, keep up the good work, we are behind you a 100 percent.

[UnitedstatesofAfrica]

...and Dibussi, I want to thank you immensely for enlightening us on this issue.

[Valentine Ngwa]

This rebuttal was posted on AC360, among others. Sanjay Gupta has read them and updated the article to reflect current knowledge. The updated version, though not still accurate, is not as silly as the original one. He sure has learnt his lesson.

[Elive]

Many thanks to Valentine Ngwa for arresting this (deliberate?) misinformation.

[Elive]

i have just visit anderson cooper's blog and found 80 comments, mostly from americans, on gupta's sensational and misleading article ''cameroon's cursed children''. this is an epic example of the bias and prejudice africa suffers from the western media. it is not the first time, they havedone several times. anderson cooper has closed comments on that article; why the hell did he? come to even think of it, gupta is ''Chief Medical Correspondent''. no comments!

[Bob Ashu]

Stephen Carter comes across as an imperialist pig who will see nothing good in an African. Ofcourse, his peanut sized brain is uncapable of thinking and asking why Gupta and Anderson did not use any WHO article in the first place before spewing garbage to the whole world. What has happened to literature review?
And if he even read the WHO document and Dr Ngwa's writeup, he will notice that they are not a direct copy and paste; as there are some issues Dr Ngwa discussed that are not on the WHO document.
Ofcourse, he cannot think that Gupta and Anderson have learnt a thing or two from such criticisms and updated their knowledge.

[doris ngwa]

i am very proub of my uncle.i was so mad at that article so much that i cry so hard all night.as a young cameroonian going to school in the united we already have americans saying dump thinks about africa.some bastard from nowwhere made it worst.

[Tapang Ivo Tanku]

Journalism in the corporate media in USA is based on how sensual a journalist can be. This is unethical and wrong. Its a disgrace to see and read Dr Gupta's public health story full of nebulous diliberate blackmail of Cameroonians. Did Gupta spend huge sums of money travelling to Cameroon from the US to pen down such a lack-luster and sensational story? This seems to me like arm-chair journalism. Dr. Ngwa you sence of health communication needs no more publicity. Let the West learn from you.