Botswana, Africa: Cancer On the Rise - Cancer Association of Botswana (CAB)
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- Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:35:39 -0400
http://allafrica.com/stories/200608281481.html
Botswana: Cancer On the Rise
Mmegi/The Reporter
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
August 28, 2006
Posted to the web August 28, 2006
Thato Chwaane
In the advent of the HIV epidemic, the number of people with cancer has
escalated, the head of Oncology at Princess Marina Hospital said last
week. Dr Alexander Von Paleske informed the media that the ward, which was
initially meant to be for admissions and observations, has now turned into
a cancer ward. He said that the number of outpatients has increased and
the rest of the staff feels it.
Paleske said that he sees about 30 patients everyday. He noted that the
most common type of cancer is Kaposi Sarcoma, which is a skin tumour and
can be removed through surgery. He said the skin develops black nodules
that can become open smelling wounds. He said sometimes there are no
choices but to amputate the limbs. Kaposi Sarcoma amounts to 80 percent of
the patients they see. However, he said that without ARV's, many more
people would have developed the cancer.
Due to the unforeseen proportions of cases, he said they cannot afford the
use of modern cancer drugs or have kidney or marrow transplants when a
large number of people are in need of ARVs.
He said the government is faced with providing large amounts of money for
radiation treatment, which is compounded by the fact that there is no
radiotherapy in the department. He said although it is still in the early
stages, there are plans to open a radiotherapy unit at the hospital.
However, he said there would be a need to have radiotherapists as well as
a building to accommodate the equipment.
Other challenges the department faces is shortage of beds. He said that by
decentralising, they are able to transfer patients to smaller hospitals
for treatment of Kaposi Sarcoma. Von Paleske said the drugs required for
the treatment of this cancer costs P350. Von Paleske said one is more
likely to get this kind of cancer with HIV. He said the second most common
cancer is Lymphoma Tumour, which is more aggressive and more expensive to
treat.
He said with cancer being such a catastrophe, nurses deal with its
emotional impact. The whole families is counselled as well and often
families need their fears of cancer allayed as sometimes they think that
cancer is an infectious disease, which it is not.
Von Paleske said that often people come for treatment late, when the
cancer tumour could have been treated early. He advised that it is
necessary to contact health institutions as early as possible and admitted
that there is not enough information reaching the public on cancer. As
part of making people aware of the increasing problem of cancer, the
Cancer Association of Botswana (CAB) manager Jeroen Lorist said that they
want to make October a cancer awareness month. The month is
internationally dedicated to breast cancer. Lorist said that most public
health expenditure in Botswana goes towards HIV/AIDS and CAB works in its
mitigation.
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