Give us tools to treat cancer, medics tell govt

Specialized health workers have asked government to provide them with enough medical supplies to treat cancer as the disease has become rampant in Uganda.

 Speaking during the commemoration of World Cancer Day in Mbarara District on Tuesday, medics from the Uganda Cancer Institute decried constant cancer drug shortages in Uganda’s health facilities.  

Separately, Mbarara District Health Officer Dr Peter Ssebutinde said: “We have spent four days teaching people about cancer, doing free testing for cervical cancer, prostate cancer in males and breast cancer in females, on the third day we got shot of drugs, we had specialized doctors, but we later lacked drugs, and that pisses us off.”

He added: “Doctors are there, and we always want to work on patients, but you find when we don’t have tools, you find yourself wanting to do surgery, but you don’t have tools only to refer them. This should stop.”

Dr Ssebutinde noted that out of 357 women who showed up for testing, 275 had signs of cervical cancer, implying that “they have started a journey for further tests to find out if they really have cervical cancer or not.”

“Also out of 357 women, 98 showed signs of having breast cancer, we usually send them to regional referral hospitals for thorough testing to confirm if they really have cancer,” he highlighted.  

Meanwhile, Uganda Cancer Institute Clinical Superintendent Dr Isreal Luutu revealed that government is planning to extend full scale cancer services at regional level in key cities such as Mbarara, Gulu and Mbale to save cancer patients from traveling long distances seeking treatment in Kampala.

“We are planning to have this in a phased manner. At the moment, we are offering chemotherapy and some surgeries but we want to be offering all the services including radiatiotherapy and immunotherapy. The one in Mbarara is already working, last year alone the centre received 1400 new patients,” Dr Luutu said.

He added: “We have another centre in Gulu which is already operational and they are giving chemotherapy, in a phased manner we shall again have equipment in Mbale, and eventually in Arua.”

Mbarara District Woman Member of Parliament Magret Rwebyambu, who is also on the parliamentary health committee, said:  “That’s why I shout everyday on the parliamentary committee to ensure that Mbarara Hospital is elevated to a national referral.”

“Once it’s a national referral, even the cancer institute you are seeing in Mulago will come to Mbarara,” she held.

In Uganda, a recent study indicated that "overall, the top five high cancer burden districts by crude cancer incidence rates are Kampala at 86.6, Gulu at 73.6, Kabale at 68.1, Iganga at 62.2, and Bushenyi at 56.0 cancer cases for every 100,000 people."