Dolapo Osinbajo
With only one cancer treatment machine working in Nigeria, it is no doubt a sign that Nigeria is not prepared to tackle the scourge, an intractable situation that has prompted CEAFON to call for a national summit to address the issue. Martins Ifijeh writes
With only one cancer treatment machine working in Nigeria, it is no doubt a sign that Nigeria is not prepared to tackle the scourge, an intractable situation that has prompted CEAFON to call for a national summit to address the issue. Martins Ifijeh writes
H.E, the Wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, in a
handshake with the President of CEAFON, Prof. Francis Durosinmi-Etti,
flanked by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr.
Linus Awute and Wife of Kebbi State Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Zainab Bagudu,
during the two-day National Cancer Summit organised by CEAFON in Abuja
…recently
With Nigeria being in an unfortunately trapped situation on the fight
against cancer, one wonders how much longer the citizens can continue to
lose their lives because the country is unable to put its house in
order to deal with the scourge squarely, prompting hundreds of lives to
be lost daily.
While the rest of the world is breaking new grounds in innovations and researches on the treatment of the various types of cancers, Nigeria is rather losing strings from the abysmally poor state of cancer care to a much poorer state. From seven perfectly working mega voltage machines in the country many years ago, now down to only one, with the machine in National Hospital, Abuja, being the most recent one to have broken down, leaving the one at Usman Danfodio University Teaching Hospital (UDTH), Sokoto, as the lone machine working optimally in the country to service over 180 Nigerians.
In an analysis done recently, a Professor of Clinical and Radiation Oncologist, Professor Sunday Adeyemi Adewuyi, explained that assuming the seven megavoltage machine in the country were working optimally, it means one machine will be to 30 million Nigerians. However, only one of such machines is optimally working in the country at the moment, which means Nigeria has one cancer treatment machine to over 180 million people.
The recommended numbers, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is one machine to 250,000 population, or one machine to 350 to 450 cancer patients. Nigeria is expected to have 840 megavoltage machines to match the recommended numbers per the population.
According to Adewuyi, a fellow African country, South Africa, has 18 megavoltage machines, which means one machine to 1.3 million citizens, while another fellow African country, Egypt, has 35 cancer machines, that is one machine to 1.2 million citizens. Japan has 611 cancer machines, with one machine to 150,000 citizens, while China has 453 machines, with one machine to 1.8 million people. A comparison that suggests Nigeria is far from ready to tackle the scourge.
This gap and several other gaps, including the lack of radiation oncologists, medical physicists, oncology nurses, therapy radiographers, mould room technicians, as well as research and treatment funding, and most importantly, the increased number of deaths occasioned by the scourge, prompted the Cancer Education and Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CEAFON) to hold a two day summit in Abuja to address the shame.
The summit which had in attendance, delegates from the federal government, led by the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute, as well as stakeholders in the health sector and captains of industries, was a thought provoking one, aimed at steering the country, corporate organisations, health bodies, as well as public spirited individuals to see the urgency in tackling the national emergency.
From one speaker to the other, it was moments of frank talk. Verdict was given. Nigeria has performed abysmally poor in the handling of cancer care in the country, as hundreds of lives are lost daily because the country is unprepared to save the lives.
First, it was the Executive Secretary of Ego Bekee Foundation, Mrs. Chidinma Uwajumogu, who, while narrating how breast cancer took the prime out of her mother, broke down in tears during her presentation, laying bare the helplessness the situation has caused many Nigerians who have at one point in their live’s journey, lost loved ones to the cruel mad cells, coupled with no solutions in hand to tackle it.
She explained how the high cost of treating the disease, was gulping N500,000 naira every two weeks, just to take care of her mother, putting on all human possibilities to making sure she survived the pain and agony, but she died afterwards.
“The pain of cancer is too much, because I saw the suffering my mother went through. There are times the pain will wake her up from sleep, and she’ll scream and cry, …and all pleas for the pain to stop fell on cancer’s deaf ears. There were sleepless nights, money was going, my normal life was gone just because I wanted to see her out of that pain. At a point I couldn’t cope because I couldn’t watch my mum go through so much pain.
“I saw first hand how cancer can shatter people, this led us to establish the Ego Bekee Foundation, to help raise awareness on cancer in Nigeria. But the truth is that there is little we can do except everyone see it as an issue that must be addressed collectively,” she noted.
Chidinma, while explaining that millions of Nigerians were going through the pain her mum went through, again, broke down in tears …and then summed up herself to say Nigeria shouldn’t let people, especially women who are worse hit by the scourge, suffer the pain of cancer.
And then, the Wife of the Vice President of the country, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo also gave a sorry tale of how she lost her mother to cancer. “It got to a point we couldn’t afford the high cost of treatment, but we did all we could to save her life. At a point, we had to get wheel chair, just to be able to transport her from one point to the other, but eventually, she died of the pain.”
Osinbajo, who represented the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari at the summit, said the First Lady was committed to the plight of women, especially on the issue of cancer, adding that with the various presentations of the speakers at the summit, it was obviously a national emergency that must be tackled holistically by all and sundry.
Osinbajo, who formally launched CEAFON and declared the summit officially opened, said recommendations would be made to the First Lady Aisha Buhari, who will in turn take those recommendations to the appropriate quarters for action.
For a Consultant, Clinical Oncologist, National Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Bello Abubakar Mohammed, the pain and frustration of the millions of cancer patients in the country was becoming unbearable, even for the specialists who see them daily, but were unable to help.
Describing the situation at the cancer centre in NHA before the machine broke down, Dr. Mohammed noted that, with only two machines working in the country, patients were becoming helpless since only few could access the machines.
“Here at NHA, there are several patients coming for treatment, but unfortunately, majority of them are on the waiting list because there are numerous patients on ground who also want to access the machine.
“If a patient comes today and pay all the funds to access radiotherapy treatment, that patient will have to wait for at least six weeks before it can reach his or her turn. Only God knows how many patients will survive that waiting time. That is the situation we find ourselves.”
As though he also envisaged that the over load on the machine might cause a breakdown soon, Mohammed noted that everyday the machine was working far beyond the recommended time because there were too many people on the list, “if you rest the machine, people will begin to die.
“The machine has been working like that for 16 years, whereas its lifespan is seven years. The machine is already over stretched. If this one pack up now, what will be the fate of those waiting to access the machine?” He queried.
The machine eventually packed up last week. As at the time of publishing this article, there is no information on whether it has been fixed.
On other areas, Mohammed said the country needed to put its acts together holistically if the fight against cancer must be defeated. “Apart from the dearth of cancer facilities, we are short of oncologists and other personnel. We have less than 60 oncologists in the country, yet we need 3,000 of them. Same with other personnel like medical physicists, oncology nurses, among others,” adding, he said it takes six years to train a specialist.
On her part, a Consultant, Clinical and Radiology Oncologist, Dr. Omolola Salako, said even the 57 Oncologists in the country were presently not doing the needed jobs because there were no radiology machines to man. “The only way to occupy these specialists, is for us to have more working machines, otherwise they will just be there helpless,” she added.
Proffering solution to the issue, the President of CEAFON, Professor Francis Durosinmi-Etti, said to curb the scourge in the country, all stakeholders, including the government, corporate organisations, health bodies and well meaning Nigerians must consciously invest in cancer care, and as well consider it a national health emergency that must be tackled without wasting time.
He said one of the major challenges of curbing cancer in the country was the lack of political will by the government, adding that priority must be given to cancer care management through deliberate policies that will improve its management.
Durosinmi-Etti, who said the summit was brought together because cancer was killing several Nigerians daily, and hence the need to tackle it head on, advised the government to set up a National Task Force on cancer to combat the situation.
According to him, it was a shame that only two radiotherapy machines were working in a country that prides itself as the giant of Africa, adding that the country can provide the needed machines to meet up the number of cancer patients in the country.
As at the time Dr. Durosinmi-Etti aired his view, the cancer machine in National Hospital, Abuja was still working. However, with the machine faulty at the moment, there is only one cancer machine working optimally in the country.
Speaking further, he said: “we are expected to have about 105,000 cancer patients that will require radiotherapy treatment in one year. So how can we cater for these thousands of people with just two machines? Access to radiotherapy is crucial and we need to make sure it is safe and effective,” he added.
On her part, the wife of the Governor of Kebbi State, Dr. Zainab Bagudu said if the country must win the war against cancer, everyone must think outside the box. She added that before her husbands’s tenure elapse in Kebbi State, she will do all within her power to have a radiotherapy machine in the state.
While the rest of the world is breaking new grounds in innovations and researches on the treatment of the various types of cancers, Nigeria is rather losing strings from the abysmally poor state of cancer care to a much poorer state. From seven perfectly working mega voltage machines in the country many years ago, now down to only one, with the machine in National Hospital, Abuja, being the most recent one to have broken down, leaving the one at Usman Danfodio University Teaching Hospital (UDTH), Sokoto, as the lone machine working optimally in the country to service over 180 Nigerians.
In an analysis done recently, a Professor of Clinical and Radiation Oncologist, Professor Sunday Adeyemi Adewuyi, explained that assuming the seven megavoltage machine in the country were working optimally, it means one machine will be to 30 million Nigerians. However, only one of such machines is optimally working in the country at the moment, which means Nigeria has one cancer treatment machine to over 180 million people.
The recommended numbers, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is one machine to 250,000 population, or one machine to 350 to 450 cancer patients. Nigeria is expected to have 840 megavoltage machines to match the recommended numbers per the population.
According to Adewuyi, a fellow African country, South Africa, has 18 megavoltage machines, which means one machine to 1.3 million citizens, while another fellow African country, Egypt, has 35 cancer machines, that is one machine to 1.2 million citizens. Japan has 611 cancer machines, with one machine to 150,000 citizens, while China has 453 machines, with one machine to 1.8 million people. A comparison that suggests Nigeria is far from ready to tackle the scourge.
This gap and several other gaps, including the lack of radiation oncologists, medical physicists, oncology nurses, therapy radiographers, mould room technicians, as well as research and treatment funding, and most importantly, the increased number of deaths occasioned by the scourge, prompted the Cancer Education and Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CEAFON) to hold a two day summit in Abuja to address the shame.
The summit which had in attendance, delegates from the federal government, led by the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute, as well as stakeholders in the health sector and captains of industries, was a thought provoking one, aimed at steering the country, corporate organisations, health bodies, as well as public spirited individuals to see the urgency in tackling the national emergency.
From one speaker to the other, it was moments of frank talk. Verdict was given. Nigeria has performed abysmally poor in the handling of cancer care in the country, as hundreds of lives are lost daily because the country is unprepared to save the lives.
First, it was the Executive Secretary of Ego Bekee Foundation, Mrs. Chidinma Uwajumogu, who, while narrating how breast cancer took the prime out of her mother, broke down in tears during her presentation, laying bare the helplessness the situation has caused many Nigerians who have at one point in their live’s journey, lost loved ones to the cruel mad cells, coupled with no solutions in hand to tackle it.
She explained how the high cost of treating the disease, was gulping N500,000 naira every two weeks, just to take care of her mother, putting on all human possibilities to making sure she survived the pain and agony, but she died afterwards.
“The pain of cancer is too much, because I saw the suffering my mother went through. There are times the pain will wake her up from sleep, and she’ll scream and cry, …and all pleas for the pain to stop fell on cancer’s deaf ears. There were sleepless nights, money was going, my normal life was gone just because I wanted to see her out of that pain. At a point I couldn’t cope because I couldn’t watch my mum go through so much pain.
“I saw first hand how cancer can shatter people, this led us to establish the Ego Bekee Foundation, to help raise awareness on cancer in Nigeria. But the truth is that there is little we can do except everyone see it as an issue that must be addressed collectively,” she noted.
Chidinma, while explaining that millions of Nigerians were going through the pain her mum went through, again, broke down in tears …and then summed up herself to say Nigeria shouldn’t let people, especially women who are worse hit by the scourge, suffer the pain of cancer.
And then, the Wife of the Vice President of the country, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo also gave a sorry tale of how she lost her mother to cancer. “It got to a point we couldn’t afford the high cost of treatment, but we did all we could to save her life. At a point, we had to get wheel chair, just to be able to transport her from one point to the other, but eventually, she died of the pain.”
Osinbajo, who represented the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari at the summit, said the First Lady was committed to the plight of women, especially on the issue of cancer, adding that with the various presentations of the speakers at the summit, it was obviously a national emergency that must be tackled holistically by all and sundry.
Osinbajo, who formally launched CEAFON and declared the summit officially opened, said recommendations would be made to the First Lady Aisha Buhari, who will in turn take those recommendations to the appropriate quarters for action.
For a Consultant, Clinical Oncologist, National Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Bello Abubakar Mohammed, the pain and frustration of the millions of cancer patients in the country was becoming unbearable, even for the specialists who see them daily, but were unable to help.
Describing the situation at the cancer centre in NHA before the machine broke down, Dr. Mohammed noted that, with only two machines working in the country, patients were becoming helpless since only few could access the machines.
“Here at NHA, there are several patients coming for treatment, but unfortunately, majority of them are on the waiting list because there are numerous patients on ground who also want to access the machine.
“If a patient comes today and pay all the funds to access radiotherapy treatment, that patient will have to wait for at least six weeks before it can reach his or her turn. Only God knows how many patients will survive that waiting time. That is the situation we find ourselves.”
As though he also envisaged that the over load on the machine might cause a breakdown soon, Mohammed noted that everyday the machine was working far beyond the recommended time because there were too many people on the list, “if you rest the machine, people will begin to die.
“The machine has been working like that for 16 years, whereas its lifespan is seven years. The machine is already over stretched. If this one pack up now, what will be the fate of those waiting to access the machine?” He queried.
The machine eventually packed up last week. As at the time of publishing this article, there is no information on whether it has been fixed.
On other areas, Mohammed said the country needed to put its acts together holistically if the fight against cancer must be defeated. “Apart from the dearth of cancer facilities, we are short of oncologists and other personnel. We have less than 60 oncologists in the country, yet we need 3,000 of them. Same with other personnel like medical physicists, oncology nurses, among others,” adding, he said it takes six years to train a specialist.
On her part, a Consultant, Clinical and Radiology Oncologist, Dr. Omolola Salako, said even the 57 Oncologists in the country were presently not doing the needed jobs because there were no radiology machines to man. “The only way to occupy these specialists, is for us to have more working machines, otherwise they will just be there helpless,” she added.
Proffering solution to the issue, the President of CEAFON, Professor Francis Durosinmi-Etti, said to curb the scourge in the country, all stakeholders, including the government, corporate organisations, health bodies and well meaning Nigerians must consciously invest in cancer care, and as well consider it a national health emergency that must be tackled without wasting time.
He said one of the major challenges of curbing cancer in the country was the lack of political will by the government, adding that priority must be given to cancer care management through deliberate policies that will improve its management.
Durosinmi-Etti, who said the summit was brought together because cancer was killing several Nigerians daily, and hence the need to tackle it head on, advised the government to set up a National Task Force on cancer to combat the situation.
According to him, it was a shame that only two radiotherapy machines were working in a country that prides itself as the giant of Africa, adding that the country can provide the needed machines to meet up the number of cancer patients in the country.
As at the time Dr. Durosinmi-Etti aired his view, the cancer machine in National Hospital, Abuja was still working. However, with the machine faulty at the moment, there is only one cancer machine working optimally in the country.
Speaking further, he said: “we are expected to have about 105,000 cancer patients that will require radiotherapy treatment in one year. So how can we cater for these thousands of people with just two machines? Access to radiotherapy is crucial and we need to make sure it is safe and effective,” he added.
On her part, the wife of the Governor of Kebbi State, Dr. Zainab Bagudu said if the country must win the war against cancer, everyone must think outside the box. She added that before her husbands’s tenure elapse in Kebbi State, she will do all within her power to have a radiotherapy machine in the state.
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