Cameroon Opens Its First PEN-Plus Clinics
New facilities in two rural district hospitals will help lay the foundation for integrated care for people living with severe noncommunicable diseases.
Clinicians at the new PEN-Plus clinic at Mfou District Hospital in Cameroon gathered in December 2025. Second from right is Dr. Yauba Saidu, country director of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) Cameroon. (Photo: Courtesy of CHAI Cameroon)
Cameroon opened its first PEN-Plus clinics in two rural districts in mid-December, marking a significant step forward for providing integrated, decentralized care for people living with severe noncommunicable diseases in the Central Africa nation.
The new PEN-Plus clinics are part of Mfou District Hospital—a key public health center located less than 20 miles south of the capital, Yaoundé—and Djoum District Hospital in the country’s south. Cameroon’s Ministry of Health and the WHO Regional Office for Africa have driven the multiyear, collaborative work to implement PEN-Plus, which is a model for integrated care and a package of clinical services for people living with severe, chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease, and rheumatic and congenital heart disease.
Through training, resources, and support, PEN-Plus enables frontline providers in low-resource health systems to provide high-quality care for people—especially children and young adults—in rural areas, decentralizing services that previously had been limited to large hospitals in urban settings and bringing lifesaving care closer to home.
In 2022, all 47 member states of WHO’s African Region adopted the PEN-Plus model as their strategy for advancing access to care for people living with these conditions.
Dr. Remy Bitwayiki, the NCDI Poverty Network’s regional advisor for West Africa, noted that the Network’s role has been less intensive with Cameroon than with other countries, given the strong lead that the country’s Ministry of Health and the WHO Regional Office for Africa have played, with the support of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
“To date, the Network’s collaboration has focused principally on supporting Cameroon’s NCDI Poverty Commission,” Dr. Bitwayiki said, adding that the Network has long served as an advisor to the commission.
Cameroon health officials also have been part of the Network’s informal coalition among French-speaking countries in West and Central Africa. Coalition members joined a PEN-Plus study tour in Sierra Leone in 2025 and continue to participate in regular Network webinars.
After visiting the PEN-Plus clinic at Mfou District Hospital in January, Dr. Gene Bukhman, co-chair of the Network, spoke positively about the clinicians, the facility, and the patient data already documented.
“It was inspiring to witness the progress that Cameroon’s Ministry of Health and the WHO African Region have made together in such a short timeframe,” Dr. Bukhman said.
Dr. Yauba Saidu, country director for the clinics’ implementing partner, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) Cameroon, said the country’s launch of PEN-Plus is part of a strategic effort to bring specialized noncommunicable disease care to rural areas, where the needs are greatest.
“This launch sends a clear message: PEN-Plus is far more than a pilot program,” Dr. Saidu said. “It is a scalable, cost-effective model for strengthening district-level capacity and advancing universal health coverage. This is how health systems can achieve durable change, from evidence to policy, implementation, and impact.”
Countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean are following a similar path, from initial implementation to national scale-up, with a dramatic impact on care in rural, underserved areas.
“The scale of PEN-Plus is growing remarkably, with activity across many countries,” Dr. Bukhman said. “So much inspiring progress has been made, even just over the past couple of months.”