Malawi on track in cancer fight—Wocaca
Women Coalition Against Cancer (Wocaca) says Malawi has potential to become one of the African countries with an efficient mechanism for fighting cancer.
Wocaca executive director Maud Mwakasungula said this in an interview from Uganda where she presented a paper titled Harnessing of the Trips Flexibility to Access to Medicine at a recent East and Southern African regional meeting held as part of the Union of International Cancer Controls (UICC) Treatment For All Campaign.
She said if properly implemented, the Cancer Treatment Centre (CTC) and Cancer Policy would help the country fight the disease.
Said Mwakasungula: “Government has shown commitment in the cancer fight by championing the construction of the cancer centre.”
But she said the CTC is not enough without local guidelines for fighting cancer, adding the Cancer Policy being produced will complement the facility and ensure treatment for all.
President Peter Mutharika launched the construction of the CTC at Kamuzu Central Hospital on March 8 2017.
“We will no longer send our cancer patients outside Malawi once the centre is complete,” he said during the launch.
An abstract presented at the symposium shows that cervical cancer is the most prevalent in Malawi with 75.9 per 100 000 people having it while mortality is at 49.8 per 100 000 population. n
