Ministry of Health chief of health services (Reforms) Martias Joshua has reaffirmed government’s commitment to support initiatives to improve lung cancer awareness and access to care.
He said this on Thursday in Dowa during a lung cancer project technical core group meeting that the Facilitators of Community Transformation (Fact) with support from Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation organised.
Fact is implementing an initiative dubbed Building Systems and Linkages for a Comprehensive Multinational Lung Cancer Control Programme (BSL-MLCCP), which, among others, seeks to raise community awareness on lung cancer.
Johua said that if successfully implemented, the programme will help strengthen and expand the local cancer registry, quantify the true burden of lung cancer and map potential hotspots that lead to spread of the disease in the country.
“This project also stands a chance to strengthen the lung cancer diagnostic capacity of central hospitals and associated secondary centres,” he said to a team of government health specialists from Kamuzu and Mzuzu central hospitals.
Fact chief executive officer Thokozile Phiri-Nkhoma said the programme seeks to improve access to early diagnostic services for lung cancer by addressing the barriers of cancer care through working with communities and the Ministry of Health.
She said Malawi will, among others, implement interventions to validate the tool for early case finding in high-risk groups for lung cancer in communities.
